FAU researchers win high‑tech award and publish breakthrough spin‑vibronic study

Dr. Zoya Hadzhieva of the FAU Faculty of Biomaterials received the Hightech Prize Bavaria’s graduate award for her dissertation on innovative, electrophoretically deposited coatings that improve the biocompatibility of metallic orthopedic implants. The work combines natural phytotherapeutics, biopolymers and bioactive glasses to create antibacterial and bioactive surfaces that can be tailored to different biomedical needs.

In a separate achievement, FAU chemists led by Prof. Dr. Dirk M. Guldi, together with Prof. Dr. Wu Lu and Prof. Dr. Michael M. Haley, published a study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society describing spin‑vibronic coupling in indenoindenodibenzothiophene diradicaloids. The paper shows how molecular vibrations triggered by light can control spin‑state changes, providing design principles for future molecular electronic and spintronic devices.