2027 |

Advisory Board

Catharina von Appen Catharina von Appen
Sales Manager Battery Test Center
DEKRA Automobil GmbH
Vita After studying general engineering at the TUHH Hamburg, Ms. von Appen holds several positions in the development of electrode films and prototype cells in Itzehoe. Ms. von Appen then held various positions in the field of stationary storage and managed various projects. Since April 2024, Ms. von Appen has been part of the support functions at the DEKRA Automobile Test Center and is responsible for technical sales for the new Battery Test Center.
Dr. Horst Ammon Dr. Chen Bin
Senior Expert
CMVR - China Merchants Testing Vehicle Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd.
Vita Bin Chen, PhD. is dedicated to the research of fire safety technology for new energy vehicles, achieving several industry firsts and forming systematic research results including equipment, standards and basic research. He developed the industry's first integrated test platform for multi-source data fusion of new energy vehicle fires, formulated the industry's first 'Electric Vehicle Fire Safety Test Methods' standard, developed the industry's first 'China Electric Vehicle Fire Safety Index', and set up the industry's leading fire prevention, control and investigation system for new energy vehicles. He established the industry-leading new energy vehicle fire prevention system of prevention, control and investigation. Dr. Bin presided over/participated in more than 10 scientific research projects at national, provincial and ministerial levels, applied for more than 10 patents and software copyrights, and published more than 20 SCI/EI papers.
Fan Bin Maren Finck
Project Manager
carhs.training gmbh
Vita Maren Finck is a Project Manager at carhs.training gmbh. From 2008 - 2015 she worked at EDAG as a project manager responsible for vehicle safety. Previously, she worked several years at carhs GmbH and TECOSIM as an analysis engineer with a focus on pedestrian safety and biomechanics. Maren has been a firefighter at the local fire station since 1994 and uses her experience as a technical rescue instructor.
Dr. Chen Bin Mark Gevers
Director Business Development
TECOSIM GmbH
Vita After studying mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen Mark Gevers joined TECOSIM as a CAE Engineer in 2001. From 2008 to 2019 he has been General Manager of TECOSIMs branch office in Cologne. Since 2019 he is in charge of TECOSIM's e-mobility and benchmarking activities as Director Business Development. For four years he has been assistant professor for material simulations.
Dr. Horst Ammon Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Stefan Hiermaier
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
Fraunhofer-Institut für Kurzzeitdynamik, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI
Vita Stefan 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.
Dr. Chen Bin Jan Krewinkel
Occupant Protection Thermal Propagation
Mercedes-Benz AG
Vita Jan Krewinkel studied psychology at the University of Tübingen. The entry into the automotive industry took place at Daimler AG in 2012 with the focus on the development of safety-relevant control and display concepts for various vehicle model series. Since 2019, he has been working in the area of passive safety with the aim of further developing the topic of occupant and environmental protection in the event of thermal runaway and thermal propagation events. The focus of the team is on a holistic view of the vehicle and the possible effect of corresponding events.
Florian Bodrogi Dr. Christiane Mair (Essl)
Lead Researcher Battery Safety
Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH
Vita After the Masters study of technical physics at Graz University of Technology Christiane Mair started working as a researcher at the VIRTUAL VEHICLE in Austria on battery safety. Her focus is set on vent gas analysis and early battery failure detection. Christiane finished her PhD thesis 2021. The aim of her PhD work was to improve battery safety by gaining insight in the failing behavior of Li-ion cells and examining concepts for early battery failure detection. Since 2022 Christiane leads the battery safety team at VIRTUAL VEHICLE.
Albert Burgstaller Prof. Dr. Qing Zhou
Department of Automotive Engineering
Tsinghua University
Vita ZHOU Qing is a professor at the School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University. Prof. Zhou serves as the Director of Vehicle Safety Committee of the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers, Associate Editor of International Journal of Impact Engineering, and Council Member of International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI). Qing Zhou received his BS degree from Peking University and PhD degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. During the period from 1994 to 2003, Dr. Zhou worked at the General Motors R&D Center and the Volpe Center of the US Department of Transportation, respectively. His research interests include vehicle safety, human body impact protection, material and structural failures under impact loads, and crash safety of battery and electric vehicle.