【Academic Lecture】Prof. Reinhart Poprawer of Fraunhofer ILT & RWTH Aachen University LLT

Univ.-Prof., Dr.-Ing Reinhart Poprawe, director of Fraunhofer ILT & RWTH Aachen University LLT, paid an academic communication visit at MECE in the afternoon of December 19, 2019, he was warmly welcomed and received by Prof. Lele Zhang, Prof. Yugong Xu and Associate Prof. Geng Chen. A talk was proceeded by both parties afterward in a cordial and friendly atmosphere.

It is worth to mention that Professor Reinhart Poprawe has started to guide and support the collaboration between RWTH Aachen University and Beijing Jiaotong University since 2012. Thanks to his support in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, four Sino-German summer schools have been successfully held in Aachen and these activities are highly estimated by the Sino-German Science Center and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Meanwhile, lately a memorandum of understanding was signed between Beijing Jiaotong University and RWTH Aachen University on eastablishing a joint laboratory for ultra-high speed laser melting technology dedicated to scientific research and personnel training.

Later this day, Prof. Reinhart Poprawe gave an academic lecture entitled “Latest developments in high Power Laser Technology for industrial Applications” in the first floor meeting room of Mechanical Engineering building. Prof. Lele Zhang and other teaching faculties attended this lecture as well as graduate students from relevant majors.

Professor Reinhart Poprawe is giving an academic lecture

In this academic lecture, present and future Laser Applications with high societal impact are summarized by “Digital Photonics”. The combination of the advancements of Information/ Internet Technologies and Data processing with the highest quality of energy available in the universe, i.e. Laser energy, opens a new level of innovation in our life.  The applications reach out from high performance cutting, polishing, joining of dissimilar materials, additive manufacturing, to new areas like ultrafast ablation of structures to reduce friction for high speed moving vehicles. In LMD, a new process with extreme speeds has been developed over the last few years, EHLA extreme high-speed Laser deposition with speeds in the range of 500 m/min. Next levels of productivity are achieved by smart beam distribution tailored to the demands of the workpiece geometry. Applied average power levels can then be pushed to the 5 or even 10 kW range.

The lecture brought wide interest among the students

The report expands the academic view sight field and brought great interest among the students. A heated discussion was held during the lecture mainly aim at the field of LPBF, LMD, Laser Additive Manufacturing (Selective Laser Melting, Laser Metal Deposition), EUV-Sources for Lithography and Microscopy, XUV-Sources, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

Heated discussion between Professor Poprawe and students

Professor Reinhart Poprawe was the director of the chair for laser technology (LLT), RWTH Aachen University and director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT). He obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Mainz, Germany, a master's degree in physics from California state university, and both a master's and a doctor's degree from the technical university of Darmstadt, Germany. He is the former vice chancellor of RWTH Aachen university and takes charge of research, institute operation and talent development. He is also responsible for the international relationship of the RWTH Aachen and works as President delegation on China affairs. In addition, he is the president of the German society for laser science; chairman of the optoelectronic research cluster of RWTH Aachen (which is one of the six initial research clusters of the university) chairperson of the work group consisted of Fraunhofer institutes on laser and surface engineering; the board of directors of the American laser institute (LIA); advisor to many international committees from different countries, and last but not least, honorary professor of Tsinghua university.  

Since 1984, professor Poprawe has supervised more than 150doctoral students, published over 600 works, nearly 40 patentsand more than 10 monographs. He has delivered more than200 talks invited by both research institutions and industrial companies.