Research

Dierk Raabe holds Dr.-Ing. and Habilitation degrees in physical metallurgy and metal physics from RWTH Aachen. After working at Carnegie Mellon University 1997-1999 he came in 1999 to the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf where he is Chief Executive. He is Professor (APL) at RWTH Aachen and Carnegie Mellon University (Adjunct). Raabe works on the simulation and mechanical properties of metallic alloys.

He wrote and edited several books on this topic, e.g. ‘Computational Materials Science’ (1998), Continuum Scale Simulation of Engineering Materials’ (2005), and ‘Crystal Plasticity FEM in Materials Science and Engineering’ (2010) as well as more than 350 peer reviewed publications. Raabe’s work places emphasis on the comparison of simulations with novel experimental results conducted under complex boundary conditions.

Currently, Raabe aims at the integration of quantum mechanical simulations into engineering materials design and property predictions. The blend of theory, characterization, and processing is important in Raabe’s work. He is a frequent plenary and keynote speaker. In 2004 he received the Leibniz-Award. 2008 Raabe was awarded Lee Hsun Lecture Award of the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and in 2011 the Weinberg Lecture Award of the University of British Columbia. In 2012 he received an ERC advanced grant. Raabe mentored more than 40 Ph.D.s. Since 2010 he is a member of the Science Advisory Board of the German Government (Wissenschaftsrat). Since 2012 he is chairman of the Governors Board of RWTH Aachen University.