Nov 17, 2016
Fraunhofer IWS Dresden with new joint leadership
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Christoph Leyens is with effect from 1. November 2016 the newest member of the leadership team of the Fraunhofer IWS Dresden. The 49 year old materials scientist joins Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Eckhard Beyer as a joint-head of the world-wide renowned research institute in the area of laser material processing, material and surface technology. Prof. Leyens is also the director of the Chair of Materials Science at the Technische Universität Dresden.
Until now Prof. Leyens has led the business fields of Thermal Surface Technology, Generative Manufacturing and Printing. He has achieved worldwide visibility through the initiation of the large research project »AGENT-3D – Additive Generative Manufacturing: The revolution in product creation in the digital era«. In co-operation with over 100 partners from industry and research innovative solutions in the area of additive manufacturing are to be investigated. These will provide an important contribution to the retention and extension of the leading role that Germany has in this advanced technological field. The undertaking is supported with 45 million euros from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the frame of the funding program »Twenty20 – partnership for innovation«.
»Modern research requires an ever wider knowledge beyond the individual specialisations. This is most applicable when the research must have a measurable use for society – such as is the case of the research done at the Fraunhofer institutes. Therefore, I am very happy along with my colleagues to further develop the Fraunhofer IWS. Our long-standing experience in laser and manufacturing engineering as well as in materials science ideally complement each other” highlighted Prof. Leyens. He also said about the development goals of his work at the institute’s director “Due to the ever increasing digitalisation of our world we expect at the IWS that we must in the future more strongly than before deal with digital process chains: from material, over the process, up to the component.« The material specialist knows that digital laser material processing and digital material engineering to be the essential parts needed to reach this challenging goal.
»In Prof. Leyens we have managed to win for the institute’s directorship an internationally renowned specialist. In the future we can even more effectively support our customers through the development of innovative products and solutions – one-stop solutions that are also outstanding within the international competition«, said Prof. Beyer who has now led the IWS for more than 20 years. In this time the institute has constantly grown. Today the IWS employees 400 employees, the majority of whom are engineers, scientists and technicians.
Background
Teams of the Fraunhofer IWS work in Dresden (headquarters), Dortmund, Zwickau, Breslau, Lansing and Plymouth (both in USA) on bespoke solutions for industrial applications. The core competences of the Institutes is in the areas of laser material processing, surface functionalisation and deposition, special joining technologies, system engineering, process simulation, materials engineering and nano-technology.
ContaCt
© Christian Hüller
Institutsleitung
NameMr Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Christoph Leyens
Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS
Visitors Address:
Winterbergstraße 28
01277 Dresden
Deutschland