Prof. Dr. Robert Maaß

Career

Robert Maass obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and at the California Institute of Technology as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral scholar. After working as a management consultant for metals at McKinsey & Co., he transferred to the University of Göttingen as a junior research group leader. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Materials Science and Engineering in 2015, where he still holds an appointment. In 2020 he became the head of materials engineering and institute director at the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin. He has published more than 100 international peer-reviewed articles and given an excess of 70 invited talks and seminars. His research interests include microstructure-property relations of amorphous and crystalline metals with an emphasis on defect structures, defect dynamics, and microstructural degradation and design.

Functions

• Board of Directors, Programming Chair, The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS), (2024-2027)
• Department Head, Institute Director, Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM), (2020-)
• Assistant Professor/Adjunct Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (2015-)
• Practice Specialist/Management Consultant, McKinsey and Company, (2012-2013)
• Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, (2011-2012)

Awards

• Finalist Medal, American Iron and Steel Institute, (2023)
• Masing Memorial Medal, German Materials Society, (2019)
• CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, (2017)
• Emmy Noether Award, German Research Foundation, (2014)
• Young Scientist Award, German Materials Society, (2009)