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Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

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Cluster of Excellence
Engineering of Advanced Materials
Nägelsbachstrasse 49b
91052 Erlangen, Germany
Email: info@eam.uni-erlangen.de

EAM Professorships

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Prof. Dr. Oliver Diwald

Particle Synthesis
He took his position as Professor for Particle Synthesis at the Institute of Particle Technology (LFG) in May 2009. As part of his role, Oliver Diwald will be involved in the activities of the Center for Functional Particle Technology of the Cluster. Oliver Diwald was born and raised in Austria. He studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna and completed his thesis on electron transfer reactions on oxide nanoparticle surfaces at the Vienna University of Technology. From 2001 to 2003 he was an Erwin-Schrödinger Fellow at the Surface Science Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked on the photoactivity of TiO2 single crystal surfaces. After returning to Vienna University of Technology, he completed his habilitation in physical chemistry in 2006 and became an associate professor in 2007. There he worked in the field of physical chemistry of small particles and focused on the investigation of interfaces present in metal oxide nanoparticle systems.

At the present Oliver Diwald and his group focuses on the chemical and physical activity of specific local bulk and interface structures that contribute to a specific function of an oxide nanoparticle ensemble. Different particle synthesis techniques such as chemical vapor synthesis or hydrothermal processing are used and will be subject to further development. These activities include methods for the controlled doping of the nanoparticle’s bulk and/or the surface as well as procedures that aim at the use of nanoparticles as support for the stabilization of another component at ultra-high dispersion. At the same time the Diwald group develops spectroscopy-based methods to quantitatively determine functional sites in powdered materials, such as chemically reactive surface species, optically active defects and impurities, or sites which control the fate of photo-excited states. Such detailed investigations are critical for a reliable property assessment of functional particle systems.
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Kfm. Bastian Etzold

Catalytic Materials
In January 2010 Bastian Etzold was appointed W1 Juniorprofessor for Catalytic Materials within the Rising Star program of the EAM. Bastian Etzold studied Chemical Engineering in Erlangen as well as Business Administration in Hagen. He received his doctoral degree in Bayreuth. Since April 2008 Bastian Etzold has been working at the Department of Chemical and Bioengineering in Erlangen. The research of his group at the chair of Chemical Reaction Engineering (Prof. Dr. Peter Wasserscheid) is based on combining chemical engineering, kinetics, and highly transient processes and operations with the field of carbon material sciences and chemistry. Advanced carbon materials on the nano and macro scale are produced and applied in energy-related fields (catalysis, electrochemical energy, and adsorptive gas storage). Bastian Etzold has been honored by several awards like the Hanns Hofmann price of the ProcessNet “Fachgemeinschaft Chemische Reaktionstechnik“, the E.ON Research Award, an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship or the Griess Lecture award of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s East Midlands Section.
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hannsjörg Freund

Catalytic Reactors and Process Technology
Hannsjörg Freund joined the FAU as Professor for Catalytic Reactors and Process Technology at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Bioengineering in January 2012. He is a recipient of the EAM Award which provides a 750,000 EUR research grant. The focus of his research is on the model-based design of optimal chemical reactors. For this purpose, he combines methods and tools of conceptual process design, analysis and optimization with detailed simulations for the computer-aided catalyst support design.
Prof. Freund studied Chemical Engineering at the FAU and completed his Master’s degree (Diplom) in 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he carried out his PhD research in Erlangen on "Detailed Simulations of Transport Processes in Fixed Beds" under the supervision of Prof. G. Emig. In 2005 he joined the Physical and Chemical Process Engineering Department (Prof. K. Sundmacher) at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg. As a senior research scientist he established his research group in the field of process intensification with special focus on the model-based design of optimal catalytic reactors and integrated processes. In addition, he was a lecturer at both the University of Magdeburg and the International Max Planck Research School. During his research stay at the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering in Shanghai in 2010, he was a guest lecturer at the East China University of Science and Technology.
His research has attracted both national as well as international attention and has been awarded with the Chemical Engineering Science “Most Cited Paper 2003-2006” award, the Hanns Hofmann Award of the ProcessNet Reaction Engineering Division and the appointment as Chair of the Process Development Division Area “Process Intensification” of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for the period 2009-2011.
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Prof. Robin Klupp Taylor, MEng, DPhil (Oxon)

Nanostructured Particles
Robin Klupp Taylor became the first W1 Juniorprofessor for Nanostructured Particles in March 2008. His research focus is on nanoparticle synthesis, direct and indirect control of colloidal interactions and nanocoating techniques. These are all tools which can be used to engineer novel nanostructures with multiple functionalities. Materials of interest include UV-absorbing zinc oxide/polymer nanocomposite spheres, tunable plasmonic nanoparticles and light diffracting superparamagnetic beads. Prof. Klupp Taylor is based at the Chair of Particle Technology (LFG) in the Department of Chemical and Bioengineering. He contributed to EAM’s Industrial Liaison Program by leading an interdisciplinary collaborative project with BASF SE from 2007– 2010 regarding the theoretical design, synthesis and validation of structured particles for optical applications. Born in Wembley (UK) Robin Klupp Taylor studied Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Oxford. Following a year of research and study at Rice University (USA) during which he developed metal nanoshells under the supervision of Prof. Naomi Halas he returned to Oxford for his doctorate. His dissertation, entitled Self-assembled colloidal multifunctional nanostructures was supervised by Prof. Peter Dobson and Dr. John Hutchison. Prof. Klupp Taylor then worked at nanotech spin-off, Oxonica Ltd, before spending 3 years at Johnson Matthey PLC. During this period he worked on a government-funded industrial project to develop know-how for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells. In 2007 Prof. Klupp Taylor moved to Erlangen to join the Chair of Particle Technology and EAM.
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Prof. Dr. Sandra Korte

Sandra Korte started to work as W1 Junior Professor for Micromechanics of Materials at the Institute for General Materials Properties in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in October 2011. She studied Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen with a major in Materials Science and continued her studies in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury, where she gained a Master's Degree in Engineering for her work on sustainable processing of natural fibres for structural composite materials. After graduating she joined the group of Prof. W. J. Clegg in the Gordon Laboratory of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge from 2006 to 2009 for her doctoral studies. Her research focused on plasticity in hard materials and, in particular, effects observed in the deformation of small volumes in the nano- to micrometer range. Sandra Korte was actively involved in the initiation of the first ‘Strategic Partnership’ between Rolls-Royce plc., the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, and Swansea as the main partners. As a Research Associate within this large collaborative project her research focused on the study of plasticity in complex crystal structures, based on the experimental techniques developed as part of her doctoral studies and with the aim of developing new high-temperature materials for use in next-generation gas turbines.
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Prof. Dr. Sabine Maier

Experimental Physics (Scanning Probe Microscopy)
Sabine Maier was appointed as W1 Junior Professor for Scanning Probe Microscopy within the EAM’s Rising Star program at the Physics Department of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in October 2010. She studied physics at the University of Basel in Switzerland. She did here PhD in Basel in the group of Prof. E. Meyer and received her doctoral degree in 2007. During one year of her dissertation she worked as a researcher for Prof. R. Bennewitz at the McGill University in Montreal (Canada). From 2007 to 2010, she was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. M. Salmeron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Berkeley. Her research experience comprises several aspects of surface science based on scanning probe microscopy, including self-assembly of organic molecules on insulating substrates, nanotribology, as well as the structure and reaction of small molecules on catalytic active substrates.
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Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. Ing. Thorsten Pöschel

Multiscale Simulation of Particulate Systems
The Institute for Multiscale Simulation of Particulate Systems was the first EAM funded institute to be appointed in December 2008. The institute headed by Thorsten Pöschel was created to strengthen the Cluster’s expertise in Modeling and Simulation.

In particular, the focus of his research is the relation between nanoscale and microscale particle properties on the one hand and macroscopic material characteristics on the other. In EAM, he studies this multi-scale problem by means of numerical simulations on the relevant length and time scales, using a variety of numerical approaches.

Thorsten Pöschel studied Physics at the University of Chemnitz and at the Electrotechnical Institute in St. Petersburg (Russia). He graduated from the Humboldt University in Berlin with a PhD in Theoretical Physics, and at the University of Dresden he obtained the degree of Doctor in Engineering in the field of Electronics. From 1990 to 2000 he worked as a research assistant at the Humboldt University in Berlin, from 2000 to 2007 as an assistant professor for Biophysics and Bioinformatics at the Charité in Berlin. During this period he assumed post doctorate positions at a number of academic institutions, including Saarland University, the University of Chicago, John von Neumann Institute for Computing in Jülich, ESPCI ParisTech in Paris, the University of Stuttgart, the University of California, Santa Barbara as well as a visiting professor in Puebla, Mexico. Prior to his appointment at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and EAM, he had been Professor for Theoretical Physics at the University of Bayreuth.
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Prof. Dr. Ana-Sunčana Smith

Theoretical Physics
In October 2009 Ana-Sunčana Smith was appointed W1 Juniorprofessor for Theoretical Physics within the Cluster’s Rising Star program. Her primary research interest is modeling and designing the adhesive properties of soft fluid interfaces. This means working at the crossover between the molecular and the microscopic length scales, to make progress in this field but also to open new research directions in connection with some of the very exciting research occurring at EAM. On March 2011 she was appointed as new member in the "Förderkolleg der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften" with her research project "Biophysical modeling of elastic surfaces".

Ana-Sunčana Smith received her general education at the Physics department of the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where she graduated in June 2001. Her diploma on the origins of hydrophobicity was performed at the Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Her doctoral studies were undertaken at TU Munich with Prof. E. Sackmann between February 2002 and December 2004. Here she specialized in the theoretical modeling of cell adhesion processes under the guidance of Prof. U. Seifert. In September 2006, she became a research associate in the group of Prof. U. Seifert at the Institute for Theoretical Physics II, University of Stuttgart.
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Prof. Dr. Michael Stingl

Applied Mathematics
Since May 2009 Michael Stingl has served as W1 Juniorprofessor for Applied Mathematics within the Cluster’s Rising Star program. His scientific focus at EAM is the development of lightweight and meta-materials by means of structural optimization in close cooperation with Research Area E Engineering of Lightweight Materials. For his thesis as a student of Mathematics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Michael Stingl developed optimization algorithms to solve complex problems with a mechanical application background. Stingl then worked on a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and made several research appointments, including stays at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague. Stingl’s focus of research was free material optimization, a new technology in the development of composite materials. This lead to the design of the Airbus A 380’s “Leading Edge Rib”, which boasts a reduction in weight of over 33 percent. The optimization software PENNON he developed during his dissertation work is unique worldwide and is used in numerous areas of application such as structure optimization, optimal process control, and financial mathematics. Recently he has been heading the EAM Focal Topic ”Numerical optimization based on predictive models“ as well the work group “Simulation” within the collaborative research center “Additive Manufacturing”.
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Prof. Dr. Tobias Unruh

Nanomaterial Characterization
Tobias Unruh was awarded a PhD in Electrochemistry by Saarland University in Saarbrücken for his study of the structural properties of hydrogen intercalates of transition metal oxides. He continued his work on the structural property relations of materials at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena as a post-doc and scientific assistant on establishment of the Chair of Pharmaceutical Technology. During this time he studied dispersions of organic colloids mainly by light scattering and small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering. After moving to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2001, he designed, commissioned, and managed the user operation of the neutron time-offlight spectrometer TOFTOF at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz research neutron source in Garching. He also established a research group to study the picosecond dynamics of molecular liquids, phospholipid membranes, and the mesoscopic structure of colloidal dispersions at the TOFTOF facility. In October 2010, he completed his ‘Habilitation’ to qualify for a full professorship in ‘Experimental Physics’ at TUM and accepted the offer of a professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with the Chair of Crystallography and Structural Physics. He will head the Scattering Methods division of the Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy.
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Prof. Graeme Whyte, DPhil

Optofluidics
Graeme Whyte is W1 Junior Professor for Optofluidics at the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics in the Department of Physics. He joined the University Erlangen-Nuremberg in March 2012 in the framework of the EAM Rising Star Program. He studied Physics at the University of Glasgow and remained there until 2003 for his PhD in the group of Prof. M. Padgett. His work entitled "Experimental 3 Dimensional Light Shaping Techniques" was recognized with the Kelvin Award for experimental physics. Following his doctorate, he joined Prof. W. Huck in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he established several key techniques for the manipulation and characterization of micro-systems. Much of this work focused on using microfluidics-produced droplets as micro-scale reactors to carry out controllable, repeatable reactions in small, well-defined reaction volumes. In 2009 Whyte joined the group of Dr. J. Guck at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he developed further techniques for the manipulation and characterization of micro-scale objects including living biological cells. This work extended the range of optical characterization to include mechanical properties.
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Prof. Jana Zaumseil, Ph.D. (Cantab.)

Nanoelectronics
Within the framework of the EAM Awards scheme Jana Zaumseil was appointed W2 Professor for Nanoelectronics in October 2009, receiving resources of 750,000 euros. The focus of her research is on nanomaterials that absorb and emit light in the near infrared like carbon nanotubes and some inorganic nanocrystals. These materials can be used in photodetectors, solar cells, and light-emitting devices that operate at a wavelength range invisible to the human eye, but quite important for many applications such as in vivo imaging, telecommunication, night vision, and many more. The goal is to understand their charge transport and photophysical properties and apply them in a range of optoelectronic devices. Jana Zaumseil studied Chemistry at the University of Leipzig with a focus on Physical Chemistry. Following a research internship at Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies, USA) where she worked on soft-lithography tools for organic field-effect transistors, she joined the Opto electronics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory (University of Cambridge, UK) in order to pursue her doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Sirringhaus. There she developed ambipolar and lightemitting polymer field-effect transistors and received her Ph.D. in 2007. Before coming to Erlangen she was a Ugo Fano postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (Argonne National Laboratory, USA), where she studied electro luminescence from semiconducting carbon nanotubes.
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