Keynote speakers

Uni Paderborn, Germany

Univ. Innsbruck, Austria

Lukas Kaserer has been an assistant professor (tenure-track) and head of the Materials Science group at the Institute of Mechatronics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria since December 2024. He holds a Master’s degree in experimental physics from the University of Innsbruck and began researching materials for the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process at the start of his PhD in 2016. He completed his dissertation in 2021 with a thesis on the LPBF manufacturing of the refractory metal molybdenum and the development of new alloys adapted to the LPBF process.
His current research focuses on alloy and process development for powder bed-based additive manufacturing of metallic materials. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, he and his group investigate refractory metals such as molybdenum and tungsten, as well as titanium and aluminum alloys and steels. A key focus is on understanding the interactions between powder characteristics, process parameters, and resulting material properties to develop tailored material solutions for advanced applications.

UCL, Belgium

After her Mechanical Engineering Degree at the University catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium in 2002, Aude Simar obtained a Ph.D. from the same university in 2006 with research related to friction stir welding in aluminum alloys. She was a post-doctoral fellow for 1.5 years at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) in the USA. After returning to UCLouvain, she joined the academic staff of the university in 2013. In 2016, she received an ERC starting Grant (ALUFIX) with the aim to mitigate and heal damage in aluminum alloys. Pr. Simar is known for her contributions to the understanding of damage of metallic materials, additive manufacturing and friction stir based processed for aluminum alloys and dissimilar welding. She supervised about 50 researchers working on these various topics. She is member of the editorial board of “Materials Characterization” and “International Materials Review”. Since 2024, she is the president of the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering.

TU Berlin, Germany

Christian Haase is a full professor at the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB). He holds the chair of Materials for Additive Manufacturing and is also the scientific director of the Centre for 3D Technologies at TUB. His current research activities focus on understanding the fundamental mechanisms that govern microstructure formation in additively manufactured alloys, alloy design for additive manufacturing and the development of design strategies combining experiments, integrated computational materials engineering and machine learning.
Christian Haase studied mechanical and materials engineering at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany) and Monash University (Australia). He then obtained his Ph.D. (completed in 2016) in the field of physical metallurgy and metal physics at RWTH Aachen University. From 2016 to 2024, he headed the research areas Integrated Computational Materials Engineering and Materials for Additive Manufacturing at the Steel Institute of RWTH Aachen University.

Technical University of Denmark

Dr. Venkata Karthik Nadimpalli is an expert in the field of additive manufacturing. He earned his B.Tech in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from IIT Madras in 2011, followed by an MSc and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 2017. Currently, Dr. Nadimpalli serves as a Senior Researcher and Group Leader for Additive Manufacturing (AM) materials and processes at DTU Construct in Denmark. His research primarily focuses on materials development using open-architecture AM systems including vat photopolymerization, binder jetting and laser-based powder bed fusion.
Dr. Nadimpalli’s record of publications and patents, including over 50 journal articles and conference papers, has earned over 1,500 citations. In addition to his research, Dr. Nadimpalli has supervised multiple postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and MSc students. His teaching contributions include developing an ongoing 3-week summer school titled ‘Experimental methods in 3D printing’, which is a technological specialization course for MSc and PhD students. He is the winner of a few prestigious awards, including the Otto Mønstead Foundation MADE prize, highlighting his position as a leading manufacturing researcher in Denmark.

Univ. Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA

Marie A. Charpagne is an assistant professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated with a PhD in Materials Science from Mines ParisTech in 2017, focusing on thermo-mechanical processing. Before joining UIUC in Fall 2021, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where she developed new techniques in correlative and 3D electron microscopy. Her research now leverages core concepts in physical metallurgy, rapid solidification and micro-mechanics, to design new alloys that adapt dynamically to extreme environments. She received her NSF CAREER award as well as the ACS New investigator award in 2023, the TMS Early career faculty fellow award in 2025, and is the author of over 45 peer-reviewed articles.