Good news for Merle Otten and her supervisor Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Brigitte Clausen: The master's thesis entitled "Industrialization and characterization of the ferritic-bainitic hot rolled steel FB560" has been awarded the Bremen Engineering Prize 2021. The prize, which is awarded annually by the board of trustees of the VDI district association for the best two final theses in engineering science courses in the Bremen district, is endowed with 1000 euros.

On November 24, the award ceremony took place as a hybrid event at the Mercedes Benz AG customer center in Bremen. The prize was presented with a laudatory speech by Prof. Dr. Bernd Kuhfuß from the University of Bremen. Merle Otten expressed her gratitude for the great award and the valuable support she received from Dr.-Ing. Matthias Steinbacher and Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Brigitte Clausen in the preparation of her master's thesis.

In her thesis, she had tested the hot-rolled steel FB560 on an industrial scale and characterized it in detail. For this purpose, Merle Otten had conducted heat treatment tests at Leibniz-IWT and derived production parameters for industrial production on the basis of the results. After her excellent graduation, she will work as an engineer in quality control.