Important research award for Professor Klusemann

2020-12-14 European Research Council (ERC) funds cutting-edge research

Lüneburg/Geesthacht. Benjamin Klusemann, Professor of Local Engineering, in particular Process Simulation at Leuphana University Lüneburg and Head of the Department "Solid Phase Joining Processes" at Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, has been awarded one of the coveted ERC Consolidator Grants. The European Research Council (ERC) is thus funding his outstanding and pioneering research with up to two million euros over the next five years. Klusemann's research focuses on experimental and numerical methods to understand the behavior of metallic materials in technological processes. The aim is to better understand and describe the underlying physical mechanisms in material behavior in order to contribute directly to the improvement and further development of various materials as well as manufacturing/jointing processes and their control.

The scientist's chosen research approach is novel. In this project, he will develop and subsequently apply customized materials and alloys for use in additive manufacturing using friction-based processes. To do this, he will build a digitized representation of the process chain in addition to developing the real process chains. For his innovative research project, he will use a novel hybrid modeling approach by combining experimental and numerical methods as well as concepts from machine learning. In this way, a previously unavailable understanding of the process-microstructure property relationships for the friction-based processes under consideration will be achieved, enabling the production of novel and better materials and structures.

"I am very happy about this funding and perceive it as a real motivational boost for my research," says Benjamin Klusemann.

The Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council is one of the most important research awards worldwide. It supports innovative basic and pioneering research. A total of 50 of these awards were made to Germany this year. The selection process is strict: To be successful, applicants must present an excellent research proposal and have already made very promising research achievements. The approval rate is only around 13 percent.

With the current success, scientists at Leuphana have succeeded for the third time in the competition for excellence funding from the European Research Council: In 2011, Prof. Dr. Jens Newig received an ERC Starting Grant and in 2014 Professor Dr. Jörn Fischer followed with a Consolidator Grant. Both are members of Leuphana's Sustainability Faculty.