Speakers & Chairmen

Bin Chen, PhD. D. 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.

Christoph Breitfuss received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Technology Graz. Since 2017 he works as a lead researcher in the field of battery crash safety at VIRTUAL VEHICLE. He has more than ten years of experience in macro-, meso-mechanical battery simulation, testing and virtual short circuit prediction. Actual research topics include AI methods for mechanical model reduction and multiphysics coupling.

Thomas Carl studied mechanical engineering at FH Kempten with a focus on design and graduated in 1999 as certified engineer (Dipl.-Ing. FH). For the next 13 years he worked as a development engineer specialising in the design of custom and packaging machinery, as well as plant construction. He joined Intertek Deutschland GmbH in 2012 as a project engineer in battery testing and certification. In 2015 he became the technical lead of Intertek’s Electromobility Laboratory before again being promoted to Head of Operations in 2018 and assuming business management responsibilities. He currently oversees battery, charging infrastructure, and environmental testing, as well as coordinates global market access.

Luis Otavio Cortes Magalhaes has a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering by the federal university of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. After graduating he started working at Fraunhofer EMI and began to research the theme of Lithium-Ion Battery thermal runaway CFD simulations. His professional expertise lies in the field of modeling and simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer. Since joining EMI, developing and improving models in the context of battery thermal runaway has been his major field of research.

After studying mechanical engineering majoring in materials science and applied informatics at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Michael joined the Fraunhofer EMI as a researcher in 2013. In 2018 he finished his PhD project focusing on hybrid material systems for automotive crash applications and founded the “Digital Engineering” research group. Since 2024 he is additionally heading the Automotive Business Unit at the EMI.

After studying mechanical engineering at the University of Hanover and working as a student at the MHH accident research, Dr. Burkhard Eickhoff began his professional career in 1999 as a test engineer for crash tests at Autoliv. Here he was able to gain in-depth experience in the field of testing and data interpretation. His next professional stations dealt with the simulation, design and further development of restraint systems: Activities as a CAE engineer, project manager and team leader in occupant simulation and system development followed at the same company. In 2012, Dr. Eickhoff completed his doctorate at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg on a method for reducing belt-induced thorax deflection in frontal crashes. Since 2016, he has headed the European “Virtual & System Engineering” department at Autoliv B.V. & Co. KG, which deals with the virtual development of belt systems and functions of future restraint systems. In addition, he was head of belt homologation for Europe for more than 5 years and was able to simplify the UN regulation for the type approval of belt systems. Relevant publications, specialist lectures, courses at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (since 2012) and seminars held at Carhs (since 2010) round off his profile. On 1.7.2024, Dr. Eickhoff will join carhs.training gmbh as Director Training & Conferences to further expand the company's offering in the field of knowledge management and expert consulting.

Johannes Fender attained a diploma degree in automotive engineering from TU Berlin in 2010. He completed his PhD at TU München in cooperation with BMW in 2013. From 2013 until 2023 he worked at BMW on methods and simulation for vehicle crash design and later notably on the integration of the passive safety concept for the BMW 3- and 4-series, including electrical safety for crash. In 2023 he became head of Characteristics and Simulation Mechanics for High-Voltage Storage-Systems for the BMW GEN5 electric vehicles.

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.

Jens Fritsch studied physics at HHU in Düsseldorf and specialized in solid-state physics. During his doctoral research he focused on the dynamic material behavior of polymers under crash loading, developing novel methods for the material characterization and material modeling of thermoplastic polymers. After leading a research group for the crashworthiness of novel materials and structures at Fraunhofer EMI, he is now head of the Material Dynamics Department.

Andrey Golubkov received his M.S. degree in engineering physics from the Technical University Graz in 2008. From 2009 to 2011 he was working full time as a concept engineer at MAGNA STEYR Battery Systems GmbH & Co OG and from 2011 to 2021 as concept engineer at Samsung SDI Battery Systems GmbH. Since 2011 he also has been working as a researcher at the VIRTUAL VEHICLE Research Center. In 2021 he finished his Ph.D. thesis ‘Safety of Li-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles’ at the Technical University Graz.

Tobias Hall holds a Master´s degree in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University. After graduation, he started his work as a Development Engineer in the Research Department of Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG. His professional expertise lies in the field of plastics processing, specifically for composite materials. Since joining Kautex Textron his primary work has been the pre-development of composite materials for the use in polymer-based automotive battery enclosures.

Pascal Hermann is the Manager of the European Simulation Team of Farasis, a global leading producer of pouch cells, modules and packs. He is a chemist by education and has 11 years of experience in the field of simulation. He has been working for 7 years as manager, 5 years for Farasis and has built the European Simulation Team from scratch. Besides his manager duties, is Pascal Hermann the global leading expert at Farasis for TP simulation and an expert for TP suppression (noTP).

After studying rescue engineering Vera Hertler completed her senior fire officer education at the Hamburg Fire Brigade. In several leading positions in plant fire brigades and as a fire protection officer in the field of automotive she has been working on various topics related to electromobility since 2012. From 2015 to 2019 she established accident research for Mercedes-Benz Vans and as a member of the VDA study group “Rescue” she contributed to the interconnection of fire services and vehicle manufacturers.

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. Frank Kindermann is Head of Battery System Europe for NIO, based in Munich. He and his team act as boots on the ground in Europe with a range of activities from software development to technology scouting. While the main focus is on battery monitoring and BMS function development, he and his team also cover topics from cell analysis to recycling. Frank has a background in electrical engineering from Technical University of Munich, where he spent his entire academic career. Prior to joining NIO, Frank was working in cell development and application at a German premium OEM. His focus on batteries started more than 13 years ago.

After the study of physics at the University of Göttingen and a PhD at the University of Hannover, Dr. Kisters started his professional career in the industry as a development engineer of measurement technologies. In 2002, he entered the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut (EMI), where he initially was responsible for investigations on transient processes in rough environments, such as blast, shock wave or ignition phenomena. Since ten years, his research now focusses on dynamic abuse tests and crash investigations of battery cells and modules.

After studying mechanical engineering at FH-Amberg-Weiden Filip Klug joined DEKRA at the Automobil Test Center as a vehicle engineer. While still a student, he worked for 13 years as a technical scrutineer in motorsport racing series such as Formula 3 and the DTM. In his first years at DEKRA he attained the status of an official authorized expert for the technical service in the fields of whole vehicle, passive and active safety as well as emissions and powertrain. After building up a DEKRA homologation team in Munich he became responsible as Head of Technical Sales for the Automobil Test Center. Since 2023 he is heading the department Support Functions and being promoted to Deputy Manager of the Automobil Test Center overseeing technical sales, business development and management as well as coordinating the global market access.

Simon Königs holds a Diploma and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the HS Bochum and the London SBU. He received his Ph.D. in systems engineering from the TU Berlin. In 2012 he started working for BMW and became responsible for the total vehicle concept integration of 7 & 5 series. In 2021 he became head of mechatronic safety in vehicle crashes.

Alexander Kospach leads the Advanced Measurement & Fluid Flow Simulation group at Virtual Vehicle. He holds a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Industrial Mathematics from the Technical University of Graz. Since 2014, he has been working at Virtual Vehicle, where his group focuses on various aspects of battery thermal management and safety. Their work in the battery field focus on multi-physics CFD simulation, fast simulation approaches (thermal digital twinning) along with advanced fluid and thermal measurement methods and test rigs.

Kim Kreisköther studied chemistry at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany and specialized in materials and nanotechnology in her Master's degree. During her doctoral research, she focused on electrode materials and took over the leadership of the electrochemistry group. Kim Kreisköther worked from 2018 to 2021 at the institute for Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components at the RWTH Aachen University, where she headed the Battery Components & Recycling group. Since January 2022, she is part of the battery expert team at Henkel and is responsible for innovation in the area of safety-relevant solutions for battery systems.

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.

Dr. Malte Alexander Kurfiss is head of the crash test center at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, EMI. He studied physics in Saarbruecken and Hamburg where he graduated in the research group of nano-structured physics. After graduating he worked as a scientist at the Institute of Applied Physics, Hamburg, and gained his doctorate in the field of semiconductor and thin film physics. In 2006 Dr. Kurfiss joined the YXLON International GmbH as product manager responsible for X-ray sources and generators. After three years, he specialized on the field of computed tomography. In 2011 he was made director of the product marketing department within the same company. Before moving back to the research field at the Fraunhofer Institute in 2015, he took over the position as director for product management, marketing and business development departments at the Allied Visions GmbH, a company specialized in developing and producing industrial camera systems. Most prominent scope of his work being head of the crash test center at the EMI, is the X-ray Car Crash X-CC aiming for high speed crash data of internal structures. The crash test center of the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, EMI, is located in Efringen-Kirchen nearby the Swiss border.

Natalia Lebedeva holds a PhD degree in chemistry from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Thereafter she joined Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands to do research on fuel cells and led projects on corrosion and corrosion protection at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. For the last 10 years she works at the batteries group of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where she currently leads a research team focusing on battery safety.

Benjamin Schaufelberger has a master in Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures from the University of Stuttgart. After graduation, he became a research fellow at Fraunhofer EMI. His professional expertise lies in the field of modeling and simulation of engineering structures under highly dynamic loading like blast, impact and crash. Within the last years, developing and improving models in the context of battery safety has become his major field of research.

Sebastian Schopferer received his PhD in physics from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2013. In 2014, he joined the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, where he currently is leading the Measurement Technology group, and is also point of contact for battery safety research at Fraunhofer EMI. His focus is on experimental methods for battery testing.

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.