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Appointments
In 2017, one new full professor, an adjunct professor and
four honorary professors were appointed to the TUM
Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Zimmermann
Prof. Lindemann (head of the Chair
of Product Development) and Prof.
Baier (head of the Chair of Lightweight
Structures) retired almost simultane-
ously in 2016. The department took this
opportunity to merge both chairs and to
create a new Chair of Product Devel-
opment and Lightweight Design, thus raising the potential
to focus on design aspects of lightweight structures.
The materials aspects of lightweight structures are well
addressed in other chairs, such as Carbon Composites,
Materials Science and Mechanics of Materials as well as
Metal Forming and Casting.
The department is proud of having won Prof. Zimmer-
mann (b. 1976) for this position. He studied Engineering
Sciences at the Technical University of Berlin, the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the École Polytechnique,
Palaiseau, and achieved his doctorate at MIT under the
supervision of Prof. Aberyaratne on multi-scale mode-
ling, non-local material models, numerical simulation of
cracks and phase boundaries. Thereafter, he joint the
BMW group, where he became team manager for driving
dynamics in the Department of Architecture Layout and
Preliminary Design. Despite his industrial career, Prof.
Zimmermann has never stopped publishing research
results in refereed scientific journals.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Gaderer
Prof. Gaderer (b. 1968), head of Regenerative Energy
Systems at the TUM Straubing Center of Science has
been appointed adjunct professor of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering in order to strengthen its ties
to the Straubing Center of Science. Gaderer studied
process engineering at TU Graz and KTH Stockholm. He
subsequently worked in industry on process engineering
projects in Switzerland and Austria. In 1999 he took up
a position at the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy
Research (ZAE Bayern) in Garching, Munich, where he
was instrumental in setting up a biomass research unit.
After obtaining his doctorate at TUM in 2008 he was
responsible for the area of decentralized energy systems
and thermal biomass utilization at the Institute of Energy
Systems. In 2015 Gaderer was appointed professor
of regenerative energy systems at Straubing Center of
Science.
Hon.-Prof. Dott. Antonio Cardella
Prof. Cardella (b. 1953) has been appointed to the
department as Honorary Professor for Nuclear Fusion
Technology at the Chair of Nuclear Technology. He studied
Nuclear Technologies at the Università degli Studi di
Palermo and has held several positions in industry and
academia since then, including an associate professorship
at the Italian ‘Ministerio dell’ Università e della Ricerca
Scientifica’. Since 1994 he has been seconded by the
European Commission to various positions in relation to
fusion technology, including the JT60SA project in Japan.
Since 2010 he has been teaching at the TUM Department
of Mechanical Engineering with great personal commit-
ment. Prof. Cardella will create an important link to IPP.