Theano Examilioti receives ESIS-Elsevier Young Scientist Award

Ms Theano Examilioti received the "ESIS-Elsevier Young Scientist Award" at the 23rd European Conference on Fracture (ECF), Portugal. This was in recognition of the lecture regarding her publication in the field of the mechanics of laser beam welded joints. Dr Nikolai Kashaev and Prof Benjamin Klusemann from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon are among the supervisors of her work. The ECF conference lasts several days and takes place every two years. This year, more than 550 participants from 40 countries gathered on the island of Madeira.

Theano Examilioti receives ESIS-Elsevier Young Scientist Award. From left to right: Prof. Zhiliang Zhang, Prof. Francesco Iacoviello, Prof. Giuseppe Andrea Ferro, Prof. Stavros Kourkoulis undTheano Examilioti. In the background: Prof. Aleksandar Sedmak und Prof. Luis Reis. Photo: Nikolai Kashaev

Theano Examiliotis is a doctoral student at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and at the University of the Aegean in Greece. Her work, entitled "Numerical investigation of laser beam-welded AA2198 joints under different artificial ageing conditions", represents a major step forward in understanding the mechanical behaviour of laser beam-welded joints made of the high-strength aluminium-lithium alloy AA2198. This alloy is already used in aeronautics, but at the same time represents a major challenge for laser steel welding. In her publication, Theano Examilioti has shown how defect-free laser beam welded joints can be effectively realised as well as how their mechanical behaviour can be modelled and optimised with consideration of the anisotropy in microstructure.

For her thesis, she worked together with the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, the University of the Aegean and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg as part of a bi-national doctorate, the so-called Co-tutelle process. She used the laboratories of the Hereon Institute for Mechanics of Materials in the Department of Laser Material Processing and Structure Evaluation. Under the lead of Dr Kashaev, the researchers in this department work primarily on the development of so-called laser joining processes, such as laser beam welding. These processes are essential for lightweight construction, for example in aircraft or car bodies.

"Ms Examilioti's work shows very clearly how effective and trusting cooperation between different partners with different competences, leads to very good research results, which are also recognised internationally accordingly," says Prof Benjamin Klusemann, Head of Department at the Hereon Institute of Materials Mechanics and Professor at Leuphana University Lüneburg.

The results of the doctoral thesis have already led to four joint publications in international journals.

"Ms Examilioti's award is a very great success for all the institutions involved and thus recognises not only the bilateral cooperation between the Helmholtz Centre Hereon and the University of Leuphana, but also the international cooperation on the European level," says Dr Nikolai Kashaev.