The Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) is a leading institution in research and education in materials science and technology.
With its interdepartmental character the IAM is one of the largest facilities of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). It pursues the KIT missions of research, teaching and innovation and contributes to the areas of energy, nano- and microtechnology, and mobility systems.
IAM pursues an interdisciplinary approach to materials research that covers the diversity and multiscale character of materials science. In cooperation with national and international partners, we study materials from their atomic structure to their function in the product. Our activities bridge the gap from materials development over process technology to systems integration.
In teaching IAM is responsible for the consecutive bachelor/master course Materials Science and Engineering. It also provides the materials science education in other university programs in engineering and natural sciences.
IAM has broad methodological competences in the fields of materials synthesis, processing, characterization, and simulation. It, thus, offers an attractive scientific environment and excellent opportunities for scientific and personal development to its members.
More than 500 employees are working at the 8 IAM units
link to IAM Units
For all those interested we offer insights into materials science research
Link to IAM Events
The interdisciplinary BSc and MSc programs "Materials Science and Engineering" combine fundamentals with applications
link to MatWerk
The IAM units will also be presenting themselves at the Open Day on May 17, 2025 with exciting contributions and activities. Further information can be found under the following link
An international team of researchers coordinated at the IAM-ZM has developed mechanical metamaterials that have a high elastic energy storage capacity thanks to twisted rods. The results have now been published in the journal "Nature".
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Prof. Christian Greiner has been appointed to the dual leadership of the MicroTribology Center µTC with Prof. Matthias Scherge. He succeeds Prof. Peter Gumbsch, who has rendered outstanding services during his 15-year term of office, in particular by providing intensive scientific policy support for the merger of the Fraunhofer IWM and KIT parts of the µTC and, among other things, driving forward the construction of the µTC buildings in Karlsruhe.
In the newly launched EU project NANO-S-MART, researchers at the IAM-MMI are investigating the material cycle of steel production in order to minimize losses in our society's consumption of raw materials in the future with intelligent material design and closed material cycles.
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Three scientists from the IAM were awarded prizes at the DGM Day 2024: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoffmann received the "Honorary Membership of the German Society for Materials Science", Dr. Alexander Kauffmann the Masing Memorial Prize and Dr. Julia Rau the DGM Young Scientist Award.
Read more at DGM (German only)
Dr. Philipp Röse (KIT junior research group leader, IAM-ET) was awarded the Hanns-Hofmann-Prize 2024 of the DECHEMA/VDI Division of Chemical Reaction Engineering for his work on the micro- and macrokinetic analysis of electrochemical syntheses. The award ceremony took place during the annual conference Reaction Engineering and Electrochemical Processes 2024 on May, 6 in Würzburg.
Anastasia August (IAM-MMS) once again impresses with two consecutive victories at science slams. On April 12, she secured first place in Friedrichshafen with an outstanding 197 out of 200 points and in Weingarten (Ravensburg) on April 13, she also prevailed against strong competition with 195 out of 200 points.
The IAM-AWP organized the international CALPHAD conference, which took place in Mannheim on 26-31 May 2024 with around 220 participants. The conference offers scientists and students interested in the thermodynamics of materials the opportunity to meet, present and discuss their work.
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On April 1, 2024, Xufei Fang started his ERC Starting Grant awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) at the IAM-MMI.
His project MECERDIS aims to fundamentally understand the mechanisms of dislocations in ceramics and help tailor new functional ceramic materials.
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The start-up Litona, founded at KIT (IAM-ESS), wants to produce the energy storage material "Prussian white" for the production of sodium-ion batteries on an industrial scale and thus support the European production of next-generation batteries.
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On 22.02.2024, the SWR captured impressions of the work on hot cells and the glove boxes in the fusion material laboratory together with Dr. Klaus Hesch (FUSION program spokesman) and Prof. Dr. Chr. Kirchlechner.
Fusion research in the state was to form the framework for a report on the SWR Aktuell Baden-Württemberg program on the Bundestag debate on the promotion of fusion research the following day.
Link to the report at ARD-Mediathek (German only)
Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts in Baden-Württemberg, visited the IAM-MMI's Fusion Materials Laboratory on February 13, 2024 together with Dr. Ronny Feuer (Head of the Department for Mobility, Energy, Aerospace, Industry 4.0) and Alexander Salomon, Member of the Karlsruhe State Parliament.
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