Polymers for the construction industry - new Chair of Construction Materials

Professor Dr.-Ing. Christina Scheffler has accepted the appointment to the Chair of Polymers in Construction at the TUD Dresden University of Technology (joint appointment with the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, IPF) as of February 1, 2024. The establishment of the new Chair aims to promote innovative research in the field of sustainable material technologies, benefiting both science and industry.

For several years, Christina Scheffler has been active at the TUD in various programs dealing with the development of novel building materials. These include the Collaborative Research Center Transregio 280 Design Strategies for Material Minimized Carbon Reinforced Concrete Structures and the Research Training Group 2250 Mineral Bonded Composites for Improved Structural Safety. She was named a Young Investigator at the Institute of Construction Materials in 2016.
Since 2014, Prof. Scheffler has been involved in the industry and research association Composites United e. V., where she heads the working group "Fiber-Matrix Adhesion". She also maintains an intensive international exchange with Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in Sweden, where she has been a visiting professor in the Polymer Composites Group of the Materials Science Department since 2023.

Polymers are already used in almost all construction methods, whether as semi-finished products, surface protection systems, concrete superplasticizers, for impregnating fibre reinforcements or as binders. The results of previous joint projects with Prof. Christina Scheffler illustrate the increasing importance of polymers in the development of new building materials.

The joint appointment is intended to further strengthen this innovative research. University teaching should also clearly benefit from the new Chair, as future civil engineers will need good expertise in the field of polymer materials.