Prof Dr Frank Kem

Frank Kern studied chemistry at University of Karlsruheculminating with his PhD thesis titled “heterogeneously catalyzed vapor phase trimerization of formaldehyde” in 1995.

In 1996 he joined industrial company Aluminum Rheinfelden and worked in quality control and development of carbon materials before becoming production plant manager for secondary aluminium recycling in the same company. In 2000 he returned to academiaand works at the Institute of Manufacturing Technology of Ceramic Components and Composites at University of Stuttgart headed by Prof. Rainer Gadow since then.

After carrying out various research projects on fiber reinforced composites and carbon materials the focus in the current position as head of the high performance ceramics group is on development of structural ceramics and ceramic manufacturing technologies. In 2015 Frank organized the topic “Advanced structural ceramics” in ECERS conference in Toledo, Spain and completed his habilitation treatise “New oxide and nanocomposite ceramics for high performance applications”.His research interests include near net-shape manufacturing of ceramics, development of multiphase composite ceramics, rare earth stabilized zirconia materials as well as hot-pressing and SPS sintering of electric discharge machinable ceramics.