Since 1 October 2018, Prof. Ralf B. Wehrspohn has been the new Chairman of the group of 16 materials science institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Materials. He has been Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems, IMWS, since 2006. Prof Bernd Mayer, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials, IFAM, has been appointed as the new Deputy Chairman.
Prof. Ralf B. Wehrspohn was previously Deputy Chairman of the Fraunhofer Group. The Fraunhofer Senate appointed him with effect from 1 October 2018 for a term of three years. He succeeds Prof. Peter Elsner, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal.
During his term of office, Prof Wehrspohn would like to focus on the Digitalisation of materials and advocate better visibility of the
importance of materials science and materials technology: „The proportion of material costs in the manufacturing industry in Germany is 35 to 55 per cent.
per cent. We can achieve considerable efficiency gains here through research and development.“
The 16 institutes of the Fraunhofer Group for Materials cover the entire Value chain from the development of new materials and the improvement of existing materials to manufacturing processes on a quasi-industrial scale and the characterisation of material properties through to the evaluation of the application behaviour of components and systems. The association is driving forward the topic of digitalisation, for example through the „Materials Data Space“ (MDS) programme. Its aim is to make materials and material-intensive value chains fit for Industry 4.0.
