Anke Weidenkaff is professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt and director of the Fraunhofer IWKS. Her principal areas of research and expertise are materials science and ressource strategies, including the development, synthesis and characterisation of sustainable materials for energy conversion and storage. Current work focuses on regenerative, self healing materials and the development of next generation process technologies for fast and efficiently closed materials cycles.

Anke Weidenkaff completed her PhD degree in Chemistry at ETH Zürich in 2000, received the Venia Legendi for Solid State Chemistry and Materials Science from the University of Augsburg in 2006 and became section head at Empa as well as associated professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She was chair holder for Materials Chemistry and director of the Institute for Materials Science at the University of Stuttgart from 2013-2018, was president of the European Thermoelectric Society (ETS), elected member of the E-MRS Executive Committee and chair of the E-MRS spring meeting 2019. In 2011 she was awarded with the Kavli Foundation Lectureship prize. She also served on expert panels of the German Science Foundation DFG and on expert panels of the European Research Council (ERC) and is member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). She published some 250 SCI rated publications on materials research in energy conversion technologies.