Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST
Editorial
Dear reader,
In the second newsletter for this year, we would first like to heartily congratulate the two award winners and IST employees Dr. Volker Sittinger and Dr. Ralf Bandorf as recipients of the SVC Distinguished Presenter Award. The award is bestowed upon individuals who have enriched the technical program of the prestigious Society of Vacuum Coaters SVC conference through sustained contributions in the advancement of vacuum coating, surface engineering and related technologies. Congratulations!
Furthermore, together with our respective project partners, we are delighted to have received two funding commitments: one for the further development of the Wolfsburg campus into a showcase location for the automotive circular economy, and the other for a future laboratory for digitalization in the circular economy. Our thanks go to our sponsors, the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (Lower Saxony ministry for science and culture), the City of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Foundation.
An exemplary success is the spin-off from the Fraunhofer IST founded by our former employee Dr. Hunter King. In this interview, the young founder of Integrative Nanotech Ltd. reveals how the spin-off was created and what challenges had to be thereby overcome.
In a further interview with our colleague Dr. Jan Gäbler, we invite you to take a look behind the scenes of the “SERPIC” project. Here you can discover how wastewater treatment plant effluent is to be efficiently processed and re-used for the irrigation of crop plants.
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to our “hot-off-the-press” Annual Report 2023 which is, as always, available to you in digital form. In addition to the usual review, we have compiled a variety of articles on a range of research topics for you and would be delighted if this could inspire a new collaboration or two.
We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading both the Annual Report and the Newsletter, and we wish you a wonderful summer.
The Editorial Team