Professor Ludwig J. Gauckler is currently Professor for Nonmetallic Inorganic Materials and Deputy Chairman of Department of Materials at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ).
Professor Gauckler received his bachelor degree in physics at the University of Stuttgart in 1973 and his PhD in natural sciences in 1976. From 1973 to 1979, he served as senior scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Metals and Materials Research in Stuttgart and carried out research in the area of high performance structural and functional ceramics. He was research associate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1977. From 1979 to 1988. he was responsible for the inorganic non-metallic materials development in the central laboratories of Aluminum Company of Switzerland, Alusuisse. He became Professor at the ETHX since 1988 and served as the Head of the Department of Materials at the ETHX from 1989 to 1992. He was guest professor at the Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1995 and at the MIT, Boston in 2001.
His research interests include the application of thermodynamics of ceramic systems and processing of ceramic materials. While he was at the Max-Planck Institute and the University of Michigan, he worked on crystal chemistry and phase equilibria studies of silicon nitride, silicon carbide and zirconia based materials. He was the first to use the principles of the "reciprocal salt systems" to investigate and to represent the phase relationships in silicon nitride, SiAION and silicon carbide containing systems. He has reported experimental results of many silicon nitride and carbide containing systems and thermodynamic calculations of heterogeneous high temperature phase equilibria of multicomponent systems. While he was with the Aluminum Company of Switzerland, Alusuisse, he worked on products and process development of ceramics and metals. Since joining the ETHZ in 1988, his work focuses on colloidal processing techniques of powders and ceramics for implants and cutting tool materials, on thermodynamic and processing property relations of High-Tc superconductors, and on mixed conductors for solid oxide fuel cell application as well as on foams and thin films. He has published more than 250 papers and holds 13 patents.
Professor Gauckler and his co-worker received several national and international awards for their work on colloid chemistry for ceramic processing and high temperature solid oxide fuel cells, among them is the Gold Ribbon of the National Academy of Science, Technology and Society, USA for the new approach in "Enzyme Catalysis of Ceramic Forming" in 1994. Professor Gauckler has been closely affiliated with many scientific societies. He was President of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW). He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society since 1997 and is also a member of the Academy of Ceramics. He also serves on the boards of several high-tech companies and on the editorial boards of the Journal on the Electroceramics, Ceramic International and Materials Science and Engineering. |