Chris Liebold
TU Ilmenau/Michael Reichel (ari)As of March 1, 2021, Dr.-Ing. Florian Puch will be a university professor at TU Ilmenau and head of the Plastics Engineering Group. At the same time, he will become the new Scientific Director at the Thuringian Institute for Textile and Plastics Research (TITK) in Rudolstadt, an affiliated institute of TU Ilmenau. His new research and teaching activities will focus on the functionalization of plastics and the design and implementation of novel machine systems for plastics processing. At the Thuringian Innovation Centre for Mobility (ThIMo), which is based at the TU Ilmenau, he will be responsible for the key area of expertise "Plastics Technology and Lightweight Construction". The focus here is on technologies for the production and recycling of fiber-reinforced plastics for the automotive industry.
TU Ilmenau / Michael Reichel (ari)Florian Puch began his scientific career at the Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Trade at RWTH Aachen University. There, he headed the Compounding working group and received his doctorate in 2015 on the topic of "Production and properties of carbon nanotube-polyamide-6 composites". Subsequently, Prof. Puch worked at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, initially in global research, before assuming functions in technology and marketing in the Construction Chemicals division. Most recently, he worked as Global Launch Manager for the MBCC Group in Mannheim, a supplier of construction chemicals products and solutions that was spun off from BASF. Florian Puch is known to the professional world through more than 50 publications, technical presentations at national and international conferences, and patent applications.
As a professor of plastics technology, Florian Puch will in future be working a lot at the interface between the TU Ilmenau and TITK Rudolstadt. Both institutions have been working closely together for years. While the university conducts basic research in materials science, the TITK, one of the leading private materials research institutes in the field of polymer functional and construction materials, transfers innovative developments to business and industry. This connection was also one of the reasons why the 38-year-old moved from Stuttgart to Thuringia: "The basic research at TU Ilmenau and the business-oriented research at TITK Rudolstadt complement each other perfectly in order to map the entire innovation chain for the plastics industry in Thuringia and beyond".
TU Ilmenau / Michael Reichel (ari)The Dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Thomas Fröhlich, is happy about the reinforcement of the team of scientists who deal with the mechanical engineering aspects of plastics technology - along the entire value chain from material to processing and application: "With Florian Puch, we are gaining an outstanding personality who will be able to represent plastics technology for our department in its entirety and thus will excellently occupy the topics of plastics processing and lightweight construction in research and teaching."
TITKAt TITK Rudolstadt, Prof. Florian Puch is taking over the newly created position of scientific director. The aim is to achieve even better holistic solutions for customers and partners: "As Thuringia's largest business-oriented, non-grant-funded research institution, we operate closely to the needs of industry and focus on the transfer of research results," says TITK Director Benjamin Riedlingshöfer. "We strive to quickly transfer them into marketable applications of high innovative content. In this way, we help our customers and clients from the SME sector to gain an innovative edge."
Contact:
Prof. Thomas Fröhlich
Dean Department of Mechanical Engineering
+49 3677 69-2499
thomas.froehlich@tu-ilmenau.de