Director

PD Dr. Christian Schmelzer has been acting Director of the Fraunhofer IMWS since May 1, 2025. In parallel to this activity, he continues to lead the "Biological and Macromolecular Materials" business unit, which he has headed since August 2018.

His research focuses on future materials for the healthcare sector. These include the development of biomimetic materials for medical applications and tissue engineering, the microstructural and molecular characterization of biological and biomaterials, issues relating to the formation, function and damage of extracellular fibre proteins as well as matrix-degrading proteases and matrikines.

Schmelzer studied physical engineering and information processing in Merseburg and Gdansk. After completing his doctorate on the topic of "Mass spectrometric characterization of protein hydrolysates" in 2007 at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), he worked there until 2016 as a research associate and head of the "Elastin" team at the Institute of Pharmacy, Faculty of Natural Sciences I (Biosciences), interrupted by a postdoctoral research stay at the Department of Biology at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. In 2021, he completed his habilitation on "Elastin - Formation and Fate" at MLU.

Schmelzer joined the Fraunhofer IMWS in 2016, initially as head of the "SkinNext" group, from whose research activities "matrihealth GmbH" emerged as a spin-off of the institute in 2022; at the beginning of 2018 he became Deputy Head of the Business Unit. He is author of more than 80 publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals and has been a lecturer at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg since 2009. His work has been recognized with the IQ Innovation Award of the City of Halle (2021) and second place in the Hugo Junkers Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt (2021), among others.

Frank Altmann has headed the "Electronic Materials and Components" business unit at Fraunhofer IMWS since 2019 and has been deputy director of the institute since June 2025. Since joining the institute as a research scientist in 1997, he has played a decisive role in building up expertise in the field of process characterization and physical failure diagnostics in microelectronics and power electronics.

Frank Altmann's scientific work is aimed not only at understanding process-related defect mechanisms and the degradation behavior of electronic components, but also at the further development of failure analysis techniques - an area in which the institute has been established for decades as a competent and reliable partner for the electronics industry, including manufacturers of analysis equipment.

The graduate physicist began his professional career as a research scientist and built up the "Diagnostics of Semiconductor Technologies" group at the Fraunhofer IMWS from 2006. Since 2019, he has headed the "Electronic Materials and Components" business unit. At the same time, he has been a lecturer at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences on the "Mechatronics, Industrial Engineering, Physical Technology" Master's degree course since 2007.

Under his leadership, the field of failure diagnostics at the Fraunhofer IMWS has become an internationally recognized reference. This is reflected not only in numerous scientific publications and conference papers, but also in awards such as the Best Paper Award of the Electronic Components Technology Conference (ECTC) in 2012, Best Paper Awards of the European Symposium on Reliability of Electronic Devices, Failure Physics and Analysis (ESREF) in 2014 and 2016 and the Hugo-Junkers-Award of the state of Saxony-Anhalt for "Failure detection in highly integrated microelectronic systems using lock-in thermography" together with the Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle (Saale).

Altmann is also heavily involved in the international scientific community. He was General Chair of the International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA) in 2023, is a regular member of the ESREF Program Committee and chairs the international CAM workshop "Failure Analysis and Material Diagnostics of Electronics Components" organized at the Fraunhofer IMWS. He is also the spokesman for the "Quality and Reliability of Integrated Circuits" technical committee in the Micro- and Nanoelectronics Division of the Information Technology Society (ITG) of the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE).

Prof. Dr. Erica Lilleodden has been member of the Institute Management of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS since February 2022. Since September 2023, she is Professor for Diagnostics and Structure of Materials, Faculty of Natural Sciences II, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.

In her research work she is primarily concerned with the nano- and micromechanics of materials such as metals, ceramics and composites. This serves to deepen our understanding of the application behavior of such materials, especially with regard to deformation, dislocation, fatigue and defect formation up to fracture. Her research also contributes to the tailor-made development of materials with specific properties for high-performance applications and multi-scale material systems.

Following her studies in materials science at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and her Ph.D. at Stanford University, her professional career has included positions at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and most recently as Head of the Department of Experimental Materials Mechanics at the Helmholtz Center hereon. From 2014 to 2022, she has been Professor of Experimental Nano- and Micromechanics at the Institute for High-Performance Ceramic Materials at the Hamburg University of Technology.

Her scientific publications to date include more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She is a regularly invited speaker at high-profile international meetings and symposia, has been a lecturer since 2002, and is on the review panel for renowned journals such as Science, Nature, and Nature Materials.

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, he worked as Legal Counsel in the legal department of Credit Suisse in Frankfurt am Main. There, he was mainly involved with issues of employment, banking, corporate and commercial law. Thomas Merkel was admitted to the bar in September 2004 and additionally to the bar as an in-house lawyer in 2016.

In July 2007, he joined the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft as a consultant to the institute's management for human resources and law at what is now the 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, he takes over the administrative tasks of the Fraunhofer 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, Thomas Merkel is involved in committees of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.