Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Gernot Hochleitner

Gernot Hochleitner completed a Master’s degree in ‘New Materials, Nanotechnology and Production Engineering’ at Nuremberg Tech in 2012. He subsequently completed his PhD at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Würzburg, specialising in additive manufacturing. His research focused on process research involving biodegradable thermoplastics and the creation of biomimetic structures for tissue engineering applications. From 2017 to 2023, Gernot Hochleitner worked as a development engineer and later as Head of Process Development at Covestro Thermoplast Composite GmbH in the field of continuous-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites. In 2023, he took over as head of the Thermal Joining Technologies research group at the SKZ, where he worked on welding processes and related techniques such as direct joining. Since April 2026, he has held the Chair of Resource-Efficient Product and Process Development at the Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Jena, where he focuses on issues in plastics engineering, with a particular emphasis on joining technology and additive manufacturing.