From the molecule to the complete system
CDS member Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Sundmacher works at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg and at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. He particularly enjoys creative scientific work in application-oriented basic research. “For me, being a scientist means having the freedom to think of new ideas in a wide variety of directions and to conduct research with an open mind. We have to make active use of this freedom and this is something that is made possible in Magdeburg,” explains Kai Sundmacher.
Already as student, Kai Sundmacher was interested in understanding of the causes of a failed experiment. He and his classmates won first prize in the national competition of „Jugend forscht“ with their research. In 1999, he was appointed to the Chair of Systems Process Engineering at the University of Magdeburg. Since 2001, he has been Director and scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg.
Professor Sundmacher is the spokesperson for the SmartProSys research cluster, which connects scientists from the fields of process engineering, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, logistics, political science and psychology. As a generalist with wide interests, Kai Sundmacher is an interdisciplinary innovator here. “Our research project tackles a major challenge of the future for society in general and for the chemical industry in particular: The transformation of energy-intensive, linear process chains based on fossil raw materials and energy sources to sustainable, completely closed, energy-saving cycles using biomass from residual and waste materials, recycled plastics and renewable energies,” explains Professor Sundmacher. In order to achieve the chemical industry's climate targets, a new generation of process technologies is needed. A key research question here is how plastic waste and biogenic residual and waste materials can be systematically and efficiently converted into valuable molecules for new products, the process engineer continues.
The process engineer particularly enjoys the interdisciplinary collaboration. Building bridges to other specialist areas, bringing theory and experiment together and taking a cross-scale approach from the individual molecule to the overall system accompanies his research work.