Five outstanding young scientists have been selected to lead "Leibniz Junior Research Groups" at the Leibniz Association's annual meeting. With this program, the Leibniz Association promotes early scientific independence through the leadership of an independent junior research group. One award from this competition went to Dr.-Ing. Anastasiya Tönjes, section head of the Lightweight Materials at Leibniz-IWT, who will now begin research work with her Leibniz Junior Research Group on the topic of "Additive manufacturing of graded structures from iron-based shape memory alloys" starting in 2022.

Anastasiya Tönjes was able to impress the reviewers and the jury of the Leibniz competition with her knowledge and great commitment in the field of shape memory alloys. Shape memory alloys are metallic materials whose plastic deformations can be reversed by heating. For her project idea, she will receive a five-year grant combined with two full-time positions for scientific staff and approximately 1.6 million euros to comprehensively pursue this research topic - detached from her section head position. The focus in her Junior Research Group will be on materials and process engineering and will involve industry as well as national and international collaborations.

The project is based on a novel 3D printing method for locally adjusting the alloy composition during laser powder bed fusion process. This enables efficient material development on the one hand and the production of components with local functionalization on the other hand. This opens up new possibilities for the design of cost-efficient, innovative, lightweight and intelligent components. Based on this project, a methodology will be provided to investigate a large number of alloy variations with unprecedented material efficiency, which will be also transferred to other functional materials.