After successfully completing her habilitation in the field of materials engineering last year, PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Stefanie Hoja, Team Leader in the Heat Treatment Department, will take up the professorship of "Materials Science" at Aalen University of Applied Sciences on September 1.

Aalen University is one of the strongest research universities for applied sciences (HAW) in Germany, which attaches great importance to modern and future-oriented teaching. Dr. Hoja will head and further develop the materials testing laboratory of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Technology and teach materials science with a focus on metallic materials and materials testing from the basics through to application in the Materials for Sustainability study area.

Dr. Hoja has been active in application-oriented research and teaching in the field of heat treatment of metallic materials for more than 17 years. During her scientific work at the Leibniz Institute for Materials-Oriented Technologies - IWT in Bremen, she completed her doctorate in 2017 on the topic of "Forging-appropriate nitrided dies". She successfully defended her habilitation thesis entitled "Nitriding and nitrocarburizing of gears" in 2023. Dr. Hoja has also been involved in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechnik e.V. (AWT) for many years, where she heads the Technical Committee 3 "Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing" and helps to organize seminars for professional training.