Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS
Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS

Director

Professor Matthias Petzold

Professor Matthias Petzold studied physics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale) and received his doctorate in 1987. Following his work at the university and two years of working in the ceramics industry, in 1991 he switched to the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Mechanics which was being set up in Halle and was the predecessor institute of the Fraunhofer IMWS.

Since its foundation in 1992 as a field office, 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, he made a significant contribution to the setting up and the successful scientific and economic development of the  Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS.

In 2003, Matthias Petzold was appointed Deputy Director of the Institute. He also heads the »Components of Microelectronics and Microsystem Engineering« business unit and in 2007 was appointed Honorary Professor of Microsystem Engineering of 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.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Höche

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Prof. Dr. Thomas Höche, Deputy director

Prof. Dr. Thomas Höche has been Deputy Head of the Fraunhofer IMWS since October 1, 2019. Born in Halle, he studied physics at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. This was followed by stints at the Max Planck Institute for Metal Research in Stuttgart, at the Otto Schott Institute for Glass Chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, at the Chair of Crystallography of the Institute of Physics at Humboldt University in Berlin and at the Leibniz Institute for Surface Modification e.V. Leipzig (IOM). Parallel to his work at the IOM, he worked at 3D-Micromac AG in Chemnitz, where he was responsible for IP management and strategic corporate development, among other things.

In 2005 he completed his habilitation procedure at the University of Leipzig, where he was appointed Associate Professor of Experimental Physics in 2008. He has been working at Fraunhofer IMWS since 2010, where he has been head of the »Optical Materials and Technologies» business unit since 2018. 

His research focuses on the nanostructuring of inorganic materials, especially glass ceramics and optical thin films, as well as their characterization with sophisticated techniques of microstructure diagnostics. In addition, there is the commercialization of new preparation techniques, such as the microPREP.

Höche has published more than 200 articles in referenced journals and holds around 30 patents and patent applications. His awards include the Max von Laue Prize of the German Society for Crystallography (2006), the Innovation Prize of TÜV SÜD (2018) and the Hugo Junkers Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, 1st place in the category »Applied Research» (2018).

Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Schattauer

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Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Schattauer, Deputy director

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.

Thomas Merkel

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Thomas Merkel, Administration Manager

Thomas Merkel studied law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and at the University of Zurich with a focus on business law. Following his second state examination, Mr. Merkel worked as Legal Counsel in the legal department of Credit Suisse in Frankfurt am Main. There, Mr. Merkel was mainly involved with issues of employment, banking, corporate and commercial law. Mr. Merkel was admitted to the bar in September 2004 and additionally to the bar as an in-house lawyer in 2016.

In July 2007, Mr. Merkel joined the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as a consultant to the Institute's management for human resources and law at the present Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS. Since January 2009, he has been head of administration for the Fraunhofer IMWS and thus responsible for the individual areas of finance, human resources, technical services and IT as well as for the area of law and compliance. Within the institute management, Mr. Merkel takes over the administrative tasks of the IMWS and represents the institute director in these areas, among other things as an interface to the central administration of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. On a higher level, Mr. Merkel is involved in committees of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.