Co-Director Peter Fratzl Receives Highest Award for an Engineer
Elected to United States National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) elected Max Planck Director and MoA Co-Director Peter Fratzl into its ranks. This honor is »among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, « the NAE wrote in its press release. Out of 23 new international members, Fratzl was the only researcher from Germany elected to the U.S. academy this year.
Peter Fratzl was honored for his work at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces: his studies on the structure and physical properties of biological materials and their application in Materials Science and Medicine. His work on the structure and strength of bone material, for example, has found its way into osteoporosis research and regenerative medicine. »I am delighted to be accepted into the NAE, which gives me a strong transatlantic perspective in addition to the European one,« said Peter Fratzl. On a national level, admission to the NAE is comparable to membership in the German Academy of Science and Engineering, or acatech. Fratzl has also been a full member since 2013. Only exceptional engineers and scientists who have made outstanding contributions to engineering science are elected to both academies. At the same time, they assume responsibility by advising policymakers and the public on engineering and technology issues.
Since 2003, Peter Fratzl has been Director of the Department of Biomaterials at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. He has been Co-Director of »Matters of Activity« since the beginning of the Cluster in 2017.
Congratulations, Peter!