Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Becker

Academic Career and Research Areas

The Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology of Prof. Becker works mainly with cereals and vegetable raw materials in a (bio)technological and/or process engineering context. The aim of the research work at the chair is to identify and understand the fundamental mechanisms that intervene in the processing into beer and beverages as well as bakery and cereal products in order to be able to design in a knowledge-based manner. The aim is not only to understand the systems, but also to derive and optimize specific processes and product properties from them. The methodological work can thereby also enrich other disciplines, such as tissue engineering, materials research or automation (e.g. Industry 4.0) and thus create a link between science and innovative entrepreneurship.

After studying food technology and biotechnology at TUM, Prof. Becker worked in industry for a short time. He then obtained his doctorate at the Chair of General Chemistry and Biochemistry at TUM (1995) and his habilitation at the Chair of Fluid Mechanics and Process Automation at TUM (2002). Via the Chair of Process Analytics and Grain Technology at the University of Hohenheim, his path led back to TUM, where he has held the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology since 2009. After several years as Department Director of the Research Department of Engineering Sciences for Food and Biogenic Raw Materials, he headed the TUM School of Life Sciences (formerly: Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan, WZW) as Dean from 2016 to 2021 and was a member of the extended Presidential Board of TU Munich. From 2017 to 2018, he was also Managing Director of EIT Food CLC Central GmbH in Munich.