German Society for Materials Science awards Tilmann Hickel and Tim M. Schwarz

Max Planck scientists receive DGM Pioneer Award and DGM Prize for Young Talent 2026

At a glance:

• Awards: DGM Pioneer Award 2026 for Dr Tilmann Hickel and DGM Prize for Young Talent 2026 for Dr Tim M. Schwarz from the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials
• Awarding organisation: German Society for Materials Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde, DGM)
• Research field - Tilmann Hickel: Computational materials science and materials informatics
• Research field - Tim M. Schwarz: Investigating liquid materials at the atomic scale
• Award ceremony: 28 September 2026 at the DGM Day in Darmstadt, Germany

 

The German Society for Materials Science (DGM) has honoured two scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat): Dr Tilmann Hickel receives the DGM Pioneer Award 2026 for his contributions to computational materials design and property optimization. Dr Tim M. Schwarz receives the DGM Prize for Young Talent 2026 for his work on the atomic-scale investigation of solid-liquid interfaces and liquids.

Both awards were presented on 28 September 2026 during the DGM Day in Darmstadt. The awards highlight the breadth of modern materials science: from computational methods that predict how materials behave, to experimental techniques that allow researchers to investigate materials down to the atomic scale.

Tilmann Hickel: Predicting material properties and automating data analysis

Tilmann Hickel is recognised in particular for his contributions to computational materials science and materials informatics. These approaches enable researchers to predict the properties and behaviour of materials and help accelerate the targeted development of new alloys.

“The interplay between materials science and industry has always been a central mission of my research. While we first used computational methods for the improvement of high-strength steels, we now concentrate on digital tools to enable accelerated materials design strategies that can also be used in industry.  In the age of artificial intelligence and large language models, it will become even easier to connect heterogeneous data and develop new materials more efficiently than before. This opens up entirely new possibilities,” says Hickel.

Hickel’s research in steel design includes the understanding of deformation mechanisms, the role of hydrogen in steels, magnetism, thermodynamics and atomic-scale processes in iron alloys. At the same time, he is committed to building a powerful digital infrastructure for materials science. This includes the development and implementation of pyiron, a digital environment for automating materials simulations and workflows.

Hickel also plays a major role in national initiatives for the digitalisation of materials research data, including the NFDI-MatWerk consortium and Platform MaterialDigital. These initiatives aim to connect data from simulations, experiments and industrial applications. By making existing research data accessible to different groups, they can also help avoid unnecessary duplication of experiments and simulations.

After completing his doctorate in theoretical solid-state physics, Hickel joined the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (known as the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung until 2024) as a postdoctoral researcher and later established a research group for computational phase studies at the institute. Since 2021, he is leading the Materials Informatics division at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing), while continuing to maintain close ties with the Max Planck Institute in Düsseldorf.

The DGM Pioneer Award honours DGM members whose work has made a significant contribution to strengthening the connection between scientific research and industrial applications.

Tim M. Schwarz: Investigating liquids and implants atom by atom

Tim M. Schwarz’s research focuses on atom probe tomography (APT), a technique that allows scientists to analyse the chemical composition of materials with near-atomic resolution. One particular challenge in atom probe tomography has been the investigation of liquids and sensitive biological materials. During his doctoral research, Schwarz developed new methods for analysing samples of frozen liquids, which enables a better understanding of processes at liquid-solid interfaces e.g. for biodegradable implants and their interactions with liquids such as blood.

“Now it is possible to investigate liquid materials using atom probe tomography to study biological, catalytic and battery materials at the atomic scale. By understanding the chemical composition of these materials and the processes at their interfaces, we can also understand how and why they degrade over time and how they can be optimised,” says Schwarz.

In the long term, Schwarz aims to understand how structures at the atomic scale determine material properties. His research ranges from the atomic-scale analysis of biomaterials and biodegradable alloys to corrosion processes at the nanoscale. Schwarz is currently investigating, among other topics, biodegradable magnesium implants and their interaction with bone structures. Magnesium implants are currently used only to a limited extent due to their relatively fast corrosion. APT can provide a more detailed understanding of these corrosion processes, providing knowledge that can be used to optimise the alloy accordingly.

Schwarz studied materials science at the University of Stuttgart before joining the Max Planck Institute in Düsseldorf in 2022. Since 2024, he is leading a project group there investigating reactions and processes at interfaces between implant surfaces and liquids.

With the DGM Prize for Young Talent, the German Materials Society recognises outstanding early-career researchers whose doctorate was completed no more than two years ago and whose research achievements are exceptional.

Two perspectives on the future of materials science

The awards for Tilmann Hickel and Tim M. Schwarz represent two distinct yet complementary approaches to understanding materials at their smallest scales. While Hickel uses simulations, physical models and materials data to make the behaviour of complex materials predictable, Schwarz develops experimental methods that reveal chemical processes and interfaces with near-atomic resolution.

Together, their research illustrates how computational and experimental approaches can deepen our understanding of materials from predicting their behaviour to observing the processes that govern their properties at the atomic scale.

Author: Yasmin Ahmed Salem