Chair of Materials Science and Engineering for Metals, University of Erlangen

Robert Singer completed his Dr.-Ing. at the University of Erlangen and then held research and development posts at Stanford University and Asea Brown Boveri (Baden) before returning to Erlangen and becoming Head of the Institute of Science and Technology there.  In parallel with this appointment, he has for a number of years been the Managing Director of Neue Materialien Fürth GmbH (http://www.nmfgmbh.de/), an institution based near Erlangen that has extensive facilities for industrially-oriented research and development.  Work there is oriented towards the development of innovative process technologies in order to manufacture near net-shape metallic and polymer lightweight constructions.  He is also Head of the Joint Institute of Advanced Materials and Processes of Erlangen University (http://www.zmp.uni-erlangen.de/), focused on interdisciplinary topics between Material Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry and Physics.  His research interests concern the development of new processes for materials and component fabrication (casting, powder metallurgy, coating technology etc), process modeling and development of advanced materials (particularly Ni-based superalloys and lightweight materials, such as aluminium, magnesium, composites and foams).  Among his awards are the Georg-Sachs-Preis (DGM), the Lee Xun Award (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Membership of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.   He has authored about 200 papers and has given many invited presentations, particularly concerning the processing of superalloys.  He has also been responsible for many technological developments and industrial innovations.  He was President of the Federation of European Materials Societies (2006-2007) and is now an Honorary Member.