An important change in leadership strengthens the innovative power of Kaiserslautern as a science location: After ten years of successful management, Dr. Konrad Steiner is handing over his role as Managing Director of the High Performance Center for Simulation and Software Based Innovation to Dr. Nicolas Fröhlich.
Over the past ten years, Dr. Steiner has made a significant contribution to the establishment of strong research collaborations. Under his leadership, the High Performance Center has brought science and companies together and helped many ideas reach the market. »It has been a pleasure to lead this High-Performance Center for a decade and to work on innovations together with our partners, thus making a decisive contribution to advancing Kaiserslautern as a science location,« says Steiner. »My special thanks go to all my colleagues and our partners in science, business and politics who have made these successes possible.«
Thanks to the consistently very positive evaluations of the High-Performance Center in the Fraunhofer internal ranking and the generous support from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the High Performance Center was on a secure financial footing. »This facilitated continuous work on forward-looking projects. The growing number of spin-offs confirms our success. One highlight here is Wendeware AG, which is marketing the »Amperix« energy management system with the »myPowerGrid« web platform,« says Steinert, looking back on the transfer highlight of 2024.
»Milestones for me were the collaborations with BioNTech before and during the coronavirus pandemic, the establishment of software for optimized radiotherapy planning for Varian Medical Systems and the Fraunhofer Prize for the »MESHFREE« software, which allows complex processes to be simulated in a time-saving manner,« says Steiner. »And finally the opening of 42kaiserslautern [only available in German], which we promoted and supported right from the start.«
In future, Steiner will head the »Processes and Materials« division and the »Flow Processes« department at the Fraunhofer ITWM. »I'm sure there will also be projects within the framework of the High Performance Center, which I'm naturally looking forward to,« says Steiner.
The new Managing Director Dr. Nicolas Fröhlich brings extensive experience and expertise with him: After completing his doctorate in mathematics at the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), he then worked for three years as a postdoc and there in a collaborative project between RPTU, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and Fraunhofer IESE and is therefore already very well networked within the High Performance Center. As a consultant to the institute management at Fraunhofer ITWM, he has a cross-departmental perspective and is closely involved in science communication and transfer.
»I am looking forward to working with our partners to promote and help shape Kaiserslautern as a science location. The opening of 42kaiserslautern was also a complete success. Now we need to find appropriate formats and offers to make innovation from Kaiserslautern visible and to make the city even more attractive for young scientists and start-ups beyond the region,« says Fröhlich, summarizing his vision for the future of the High-Performance Center
