A team from the Dep. of Functional Materials (Oliver Gutfleisch, Konstantin Skokov, Alex Aubert, and Wei Liu), along with Max Fries from Magnotherm GmbH and Tino Gottschall from HZDR Dresden, recently travelled to Baotou, China, for the 10th IIR International Conference on Caloric Cooling and Applications of Caloric Materials. They delivered several key note lectures on the fundamentals and applications of MCE materials.

Baotou is the very heart of the Chinese and thus global rare earth industry. The delegation took the opportunity to visit Baotou Research Institute of Rare Earth (BRIRE) and several magnet manufacturing plants.

After Baotou, they headed to Beijing to participate in the German-Chinese Magnetism workshop with various Chinese universities and CAS institutes. Prof. Gutfleisch also delivered a lecture in the Zhong Guan Cun Forum on Condensed Matter Physics in the Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Science. Apart from a deep dive in local cuisine, we gained valuable insights in the fast-progressing efforts in China in the transition to renewables and the role of magnets therein."