Director

Dr. Christian Growitsch has been the acting Institute Director of the Fraunhofer IMWS since January 2018. Since July 2017, he has led the Center for Economics of Materials CEM in Halle (Saale). The CEM is a joint research institution from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), and advises the fields of industry and politics on technical and economic issues relating to the structural shift toward a sustainable industrial society.

Christian Growitsch is a Research Fellow in the Energy Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne (EWI), and a visiting scholar at the University of Hamburg. From September 2014 to September 2015, he was the Director and Management Spokesperson of Hamburgisches WeltWirtschaftsInstitut (HWWI). Since October 2015, Christian Growitsch has also taught economics in the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg. From 2010 until August 2014, he was the Director of Application Research and member of the Management Board at EWI, as well as a private economics lecturer in the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne.

The economist studied economics and social science at the Universities of Hamburg and Lüneburg, and completed his doctorate at the Universities of Lüneburg and Cambridge. In May 2010, he completed his postdoctoral Habilitation degree at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, followed by a transfer of his Habilitation to the University of Cologne in June 2012. His research and politico-economic consulting work falls within the field of applied microeconomics; among other things, he extensively studies the economics of energy and infrastructure.

Professor Dr. Matthias Petzold has been Acting Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS since October 1, 2019. He studied physics at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale) and received his doctorate in 1987. After his work at the university and two years in the ceramics industry, in 1991 he moved to the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Halle, the predecessor institute of the Fraunhofer IMWS.

Since its foundation in 1992 as a field office, he made a significant contribution to the setting up and the successful scientific and economic development of the Institute through his diverse activities in material research and diagnostics of microelectronics components, the strength and reliability of silicon microsystems and the study of reaction mechanisms of dental products.

From 2003 to 2010, Matthias Petzold was Deputy Head of the Institute Branch, then Deputy Head of the Institute. From 2008 until his appointment as Director of the Institute, he headed the business unit “Components of Microelectronics and Microsystems Engineering.” In 2007 he was appointed Honorary Professor for Microsystems Technology at the Merseburg University of Applied Sciences. Matthias Petzold is the author and co-author of more than 100 publications in magazines and conference proceedings and has given various talks as a guest of international conferences. He also works as a reviewer for various international trade magazines.

Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Schattauer has been Deputy Head of the Fraunhofer IMWS since October 1, 2019. On behalf of the Executive Board, she is primarily responsible for the spin-off of the business unit “Chemical Conversion Processes” into a separate Fraunhofer Institute. Previously, she was Deputy Head of the “Materials/Life Sciences” department in the Executive Board office of the Fraunhofer Headquarters in the Research Division of the Department of the President. This also included overall responsibility for research coordination in the “Materials” division.

Schattauer studied electrical engineering with a focus on environmental technology/regenerative energies in Berlin and earned her doctorate in experimental physics at the University of Potsdam. As a postdoc she worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam, on the development of fuel cell systems at Heliocentris Energy Solutions AG in Berlin, and as a research associate at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in the field of solar cell material recovery. She has been a staff member of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft since 2011.