Furthermore, since 1^st April 2018, Professor Siebert-Raths has been the Institute Director of the IfBB - Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites at the Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, with which the Fraunhofer WKI closely cooperates. Professor Dr.-Ing. Bohumil Kasal, Director of the Fraunhofer WKI, is looking forward to the future cooperation: “With Professor Siebert-Raths, we are gaining a dedicated expert on the utilization of renewable raw materials. Ms. Siebert-Raths has already worked for the Fraunhofer WKI in the past, and we are delighted to be able to continue our successful cooperation with her as Head of Department.”  

With her new assignment, Professor Siebert-Raths would like, above all, to promote the transfer of sustainable technologies to industry: “The topic of recycling will play a significant role in the coming years. A fundamental goal in this context is to establish failure-predictive simulation, both for recycled and for newly developed materials. With a strong team of experienced scientists at the HOFZET^®, I would like to make our research highly visible across the scope of the bioeconomy and, in collaboration with policymakers and industry, to take decisive steps towards sustainability. We want to thereby establish materials as valuable resources and rethink the circular economy.”

Professor Siebert-Raths replaces René Schaldach, who has held the position of Head of Department on a temporary basis since September 2019 and is now returning to his original duties as Innovation Manager and Deputy Head of Department at the Fraunhofer WKI HOFZET^®. 

The career path of Professor Siebert-Raths

After completing her university studies on the topic of Technology of Renewable Resources at the Fachhochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Faculty II, Maschinenbau und Bioverfahrenstechnik (Mechanical Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering), Ms. Siebert-Raths finalized her extra-occupational doctorate at the University of Rostock in 2012. From 2006 to 2013, she was a research associate at the Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts at the IfBB - Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites where, from 2013 to 2018, she also held the position of Deputy Director of the Institute. From 2013 to 2017, Professor Siebert-Raths was a research associate at the HOFZET^® and was also active as an administrative professor at the Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the specialist field of “Products and Processing of Renewable Raw Materials” from 2014 to 2018. In April 2018, she accepted a professorship at the Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Faculty II, Mechanical Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering, in the specialist field of “Products and Processing of Renewable Raw Materials”. Since June 2018, Professor Siebert-Raths has been Head of the IfBB - Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites at the Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts.