Alumni Success Stories
Dr.-Ing. Lakshman Neelakantan, Professor at IIT Madras
Ph.D. at Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE) & Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2004 - 2008)
After IMPRS-SurMat, Lakshman Neelakantan further pursued his academic career as Post Doctorial Fellow at the MPIE from 2008 until 2010 and subsequently one year at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. After that, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the renowned Indian Institute of Technology in Madras in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, where he is employed as an Associate Professor since 2017.
"International Max-Planck Research School for Surface and Interface Engineering in Advanced Materials (IMPRS- SurMat) provided me the conducive environment to realize my dreams (into a teacher/researcher). The summer and winter classes at SurMat is truly interdisciplinary in nature, which is unique. I am deeply indebted to my Professors, Prof. Achim Walter Hassel, Prof. Gunther Eggeler and Prof. Martin Stratmann for mentoring me. I treasure the days I spent with the colleagues at MPIE and RUB. In simple words, IMPRS- SurMat (MPIE & RUB, Germany) catalyzed both the professional and personal sphere of my life." - Dr. -Ing. Lakshman Neelakantan
Dr.-Ing. Helge Stein, Juniorprofessor at KIT
Ph.D. at Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung & Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2013 - 2017)
After IMPRS-SurMat, Helge Stein further pursued his academic career as Post Doctorial Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena from 2017 until 2020. Currently he workes as Juniorprofessor at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie and Helmholtz-Institut Ulm.
"Shortly before graduating my masters in physics I was looking for a PhD position that offered me enough freedom for my own ideas and an environment that “dared” to be interdisciplinary and would accept some odd physicist working at the intersection of chemistry, physics and engineering. SurMat brings together people from a diverse set of scientific and cultural backgrounds working on interface dominated materials across the “Ruhrpott” – a setting which I enjoyed a lot in my four years of PhD time." - Dr. -Ing. Helge Stein