Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMIStefan Hiermaier studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of German Armed Forces in Munich and obtained his doctorate from the Faculty of Civil Engineering. His habilitation on high-speed dynamics of materials dates from 2002. Stefan Hiermaier was appointed the first Professor in the field of high-speed dynamics in Germany in 2008.
2015 Hiermaier was appointed Professor for Sustainable Systems Engineering at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. He is both Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics and Director of the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. He is also vice-dean of the faculty and co-coordinator of the Sustainability Center Freiburg, a co-operation of the five Fraunhofer Institutes in Freiburg and the Albert-Ludwigs-University.
Stefan Hiermaier’s major research interest is Resilient Dynamics, i.e. resilience of complex critical infrastructure. One focus is the dynamic behavior and shock wave physics of materials and structures integrating experimental and numerical methods. Major issues are discretization methods and constitutive equations for materials under crash and impact loads. Design of Critical Infrastructure towards more resilience with respect to disruptive events and related uncertainties is the research Stefan Hiermaier persues entitled as Resilience Engineering.
Stefan Hiermaier has written numerous publications on these topics. His book “Structures Under Crash and Impact” was published by Springer in 2008. Stefan Hiermaier has been president of the DYMAT association (European association for the promotion of research into the dynamic behaviour of materials and its applications) since 2012.
