Dear community,

this is our first newsletter and we are looking forward to your feedback 🤗 We want to pause with you for a moment and review the year, that has almost passed, before we look briefly to the coming year 2023. 👀

What we were excited about in 2022:

🤜🤛 🌏 We have a new cooperation with the Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB, Côte d'Ivoire). As part of this collaboration, two scientists, Dr. Marie Florence Yebouet and Arielle Desiree Koffi Abah, visited the Materials Research Institute of Aalen University (IMFAA).

🤩 We were able to offer a graduate seminar in presence to our 25 PhD students for the first time in a long time to facilitate them in working on their major dissertation project.

👍 Prof. Dr. Volker Knoblauch from the IMFAA management team has become the new Vice Rector for Research at Aalen University. The materials scientist conducts research on innovative battery technologies and is committed to further improving research conditions at the university.

👉 We hosted the Fourth Aalen Materials Microscopy Day at Aalen University. Around 90 experts from industry and research addressed the latest findings and methods in digital microscopy with a special focus on electromobility, renewable energies and microelectronics.

👀🔬We were able to install a new system for the non-destructive investigation of materials at Aalen University. With the ZEISS Xradia Versa 610 model, researchers can now pursue completely new questions across institutes and gain valuable insights into the inner workings of components.

😍 We had a first international IMFAA get-together, taking a culinary trip around the world.

🥇 The #TeamIMFAA came out strong at the 56th Metallography Conference of the German Society for Materials Science (DGM): A total of four awards went to materials researchers from IMFAA: Gaby Ketzer-Raichle, Felix Trauter, Dominic Hohs and Elvira Reiter. Read more here: https://www.hs-aalen.de/en/news/4540. Congratulations also to Felix Trauter and Dominic Hohs from #TeamIMFAA for their great results in the fourth Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards competition! For more, klick here: https://lnkd.in/eQxdRAeW. Congratulations also to Emanuel Wengenmayr from #TeamIMFAA, who was awarded the Sparkassenstiftung's Outstanding Research Award for his bachelor thesis.

🚀 We are continuing to expand our infrastructure and are currently planning to purchase two analytical instruments. These will be used in special experiments in battery research. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the acquisition with around 834,000 euros.

📝 We had some publications in a wide range of topics, for example in the field of magnet and battery research, additive manufacturing and linking microscopy with deep learning methods, for example here: https://bit.ly/3uY1qBa, here: https://lnkd.in/dwsi-Vdw or here: https://lnkd.in/dPEQJVzP.

👏 We were able to welcome lots of schoolchildren and children to activities in the research building and get them excited about science, 🤜🤛 welcome new colleagues to #TeamIMFAA, 🤩 celebrate weddings and birthdays in the team, 👶 rejoice at the birth of babies to colleagues and say goodbye to some in other great jobs.😢🤗

What to expect in 2023:

📢 Most importantly, we'll be 1️⃣0️⃣ years old!🚀🎆 We have a lot of interesting events, activities and content planned for you! 😍🙌We are very much looking forward to it and thank you all for accompanying us up to this point and for continuing to stay by our side!

What kept you particularly busy in 2022❓ Do you have any wishes for 2023❓ We are happy to receive praise, criticism and suggestions of any kind at andrea.heidel@hs-aalen.de. We wish you a Merry Christmas (in case you celebrate) and a healthy and successful 2023❗

Your #TeamIMFAA