Prof Eifler studied mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). His scientific career was significantly influenced by his doctoral supervisor and mentor Professor Dr. Eckard Macherauch, who awarded him his doctorate in 1981 and immediately afterwards entrusted him with the management of the fatigue strength laboratory at the Institute of Materials Science I (IWK) at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1991, he qualified as a professor and received authorisation to teach (venia legendi) in the subject of ‘Materials Science’ from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. In March 1991, he accepted a positon at the University of Essen. From October 1994 to September 2014, he held the professorship for Materials Science at the TU Kaiserslautern and very successfully headed the Chair of Materials Science (WKK). Since October 2014, he has been a senior research professor at the Chair of Materials Science. Prof Eifler is a member of numerous national and international committees and expert panels and is a member of the advisory board of leading international journals. He is a national and international reviewer, including for the DFG, the AiF and the National Science Foundation (USA). Prof Eifler is also a visiting professor at Fukuoka University, Japan. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Council for Technology of the government of the state of RheinlandPfalz. In 2009, he was accepted as a full member of Academia Non Destructive Testing (NDT) International. His achievements as a scientist and university lecturer have been honoured with outstanding awards, most recently in 2008 with the Academy Prize of the State of Rheinland-Pfalz and in 2009 with admission to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and the Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). In 2013, he was awarded the Heyn Memorial Medal, the highest honour of the German Society for Materials Science.

Dietmar Eifler deals with structural-mechanical processes that lead to fatigue failure in metallic materials and material composites under cyclic stress. His dissertation already attracted a great deal of attention from international experts and led to a fundamental understanding of the deformation behaviour of vibration-stressed quenched and tempered steels. Subsequently, his research focused on homogeneous metallic materials (light metals, carbon steels) and complex technical materials (sintered metals, fibre-reinforced glasses, MMC). The associated investigations under mechanical and thermo-mechanical stress required the development of suitable intelligent experimental equipment. For this purpose, mechanical and physical measurement methods were further developed and cross-correlated. With the test devices developed by Prof. Eifler and his working group, as well as accompanying microstructural investigations, it was possible to clarify fundamental questions about the fatigue behaviour of metallic materials. His findings on the alternating deformation behaviour of highly stressed ICE wheel steels, on deformation-induced phase transformation in metastable austenites and on the fatigue behaviour of thermally and mechanically stressed cast iron materials are of great practical importance. The ‘PHYBAL’ service life calculation concept developed at the WKK is attracting great interest in science and industry. Interfacial phenomena and residual stress relaxation in glass/metal compounds, fatigue behaviour of sintered materials, but also of human bones as a very complex material in connection with medical issues were the subject of his research.

In addition to the research area of fatigue strength, Prof Eifler is also intensively involved in innovative press welding processes. The Chair of Materials Science is researching technologically relevant ways of structurally joining materials with very different properties. Ultrasonic welding is being investigated at the WKK for this purpose. In addition to light metal mixed composites, Prof. Eifler's group has been able to realise highly stressable joints between metals and ceramics as well as metals and fibre composites for the first time.

The focus of his current work is on investigations into the alternating deformation behaviour in the area of very high load cycles (VHCF). To this end, the expertise from the fields of fatigue and ultrasonic joining technology have been synergistically combined so that a completely new type of testing and measuring system with a testing frequency of 20 kHz could be developed at the WKK to describe the fatigue behaviour of a wide range of material groups.

Heyn Memorial Medal for Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dietmar Eifler

Professor Eifler honoured with the State Order of Merit