Intelligent energy conversion, highly efficient or even almost lossless: This vision drives Dr. Stefan Mönch, Junior Professor at the Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW) of the University of Stuttgart. The European Research Council (ERC) has now awarded him one of its prestigious ERC Starting Grants valued at around EUR 1.5 million for his research. The potential applications of his basic research range from electromobility and innovative heat pumps to robotics and other energy converters.

AIP is pleased to announce Smitha Vishveshwara as the winner of the 2025 Andrew Gemant Award. Vishveshwara was chosen “for [her] years of creatively blending science teaching, theater, and art in ways that inspire and communicate the principles and elegance of physics through artistic expression.” The Gemant Award recognizes the accomplishments of a person who has made significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics.

Soft porous crystals (SPCs), particularly soft metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), have emerged as a revolutionary class of materials distinguished by exceptional porosity, tunable structures, and most notably, structural adaptivity. These unique dynamic properties enable stimuli-responsive structural transitions—such as gate-opening or breathing effects—allowing them to selectively adsorb, sense, or separate molecules in ways that their rigid counterparts tend to lack. Despite growing interest, most current applications remain at the proof-of-concept stage, and certain application areas have yet to be extended to SPCs. This is primarily constrained by challenges such as long-term stability issues, inherent lack of conductivity, and difficulties in large-scale production. Rational design strategies—such as hybridization, doping, and functionalization—hold great promise for addressing these challenges. A team of scientists has recently summarized key progress in SPCs, shedding light on “dose-sensitive” applications and “scaling softness”. Their work is published in Industrial Chemistry & Materials on July 16, 2025.