Institute director retires

On 1 April, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Matthias Busse retired after 21 years as Institute Director of the Fraunhofer IFAM, Bremen.

During this time, the institute has developed into one of the largest within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. In addition to his work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research, Busse also held the Chair of Final Moulding Technology at the Department of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. Prof Dr Bernd Mayer was appointed to succeed him as Managing Director of the Institute.

Busse's extensive industrial experience within the automotive industry played a decisive role in the further development of the institute. He established new models of cooperation within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with the Fraunhofer Project Centres ‘Lightweight Construction and Circular Economy’ in Wolfsburg and ‘Energy Storage and Systems’ in Braunschweig. From 2009, IFAM took off with the topic of electromobility, among others. Matthias Busse was in charge of the ‘Electromobility Model Region in Bremen/Oldenburg’ and the Fraunhofer lead project ‘Electromobility Systems Research’. Important milestones were achieved with the expansion of major research topics, such as electrical energy storage systems, modern foundry processes and additive manufacturing processes. The recent spin-off of Cast Coil GmbH is another example of this.

Matthias Busse was awarded the Fraunhofer Medal for these achievements on his retirement. The medal honours individuals who have rendered outstanding services to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.