Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Kfm. Alexander Sauer

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Director of Fraunhofer IPA

Scientific Director for Sustainability, Circular Economy and Value Creation Systems

Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production EEP University of Stuttgart

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Sauer completed a double degree in mechanical engineering and business administration from RWTH Aachen in 1997, where he also received his doctorate in 2005. After working as a research assistant at the WZL, Sauer joined Hoerbiger Automotive Komfortsysteme GmbH in 2006 as a member of the executive board.

In early 2011, he accepted the call to the Munich University of Applied Sciences as a professor for manufacturing technology. At the beginning of 2015, he was appointed as a professor at the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production (EEP) of the University of Stuttgart and, in parallel, took on more and more management tasks at Fraunhofer IPA.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Sauer developed the energy efficiency index of the industry, head of the Ultra-efficiency Factory and spokesman for the Kopernikus Project SynErgie, one of the largest scientific projects in the context of the energy transition.

© Fraunhofer IPA, Photo: Rainer Bez

since 7/2024

Scientific Director of Sustainability, Circular Economy and Value Creation Systems

 

since 2020

Director Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
 

since 2019

Head of Division Resource-efficient Production, Fraunhofer IPA
 

2015-2020

Head of Department Efficiency Systems, Fraunhofer IPA
 

since 2015

Head of Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production, University of Stuttgart
 

2011 – 2015

Munich University of Applied Sciences

–  Full Professor in Manufacturing Technology

–  Head of the Laboratory for Applied Manufacturing Technology
 

2006 – 2010

HOERBIGER Automotive Komfortsysteme GmbH

–  Board Member, responsibility for the international operations

–  1st. tier automotive supplier with three production sites in Germany, Poland and the US

–  business segments: automotive hydraulic motion control systems, automotive pneumatic seating comfort systems, pneumatic gear shift support systems for trucks

–  responsibility for industrial engineering, production, planning, production, logistics, maintenance, production strategies in terms of technologies and capacities for medium and long range planning
 

2002 – 2006

Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL), RWTH Aachen University

–  Research Associate

– 2005 Chief Engineer, Head of Business Development

Advisory Board Member Sustainable Bioeconomy, State Government of Baden-Württemberg

Expert and Member of the core group for the evaluation of the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research, SCCER of InnoSuisse (Schweizerische Agentur für Innovationsförderung)

Head of the Technical Committee (VDI) »Energy Flexible Factories«

Member of the Advisory Board of Reutlinger Energiezentrum für Dezentrale Energiesysteme & Energieeffizienz (REZ)

Member of the Advisory Board of Deutsche Unternehmensinitiative Energieeffizienz e. V. – DENEFF

Chairman of the Advisory Board of Umwelttechnik BW GmbH,

Landesagentur für Umwelttechnik und Ressourceneffizienz Baden-Württemberg

Member of the Advisory Board of Regionale Kompetenzstellen Netzwerk Energieeffizienz of the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector Baden-Württemberg