Introduction of the institute
The Institute of Applied Mechanics (MIB) is part of the Faculty 2 (Civil and Environmental Engineering) at the University of Stuttgart. Its main premises like the library, the seminar and conference room, the student assistants' room as well as many of the staff's offices are located in Pfaffenwaldring 7 and 9 (3rd floor) on the Vaihingen campus.
The institute comprises three working groups: the Chair of Materials Theory (MAT, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc-André Keip), the Chair of Continuum Mechanics (CONT, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Steeb) and the DFG Heisenberg Professorship for Data Analytics in Engineering (DAE, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Math. techn. Felix Fritzen, rooms in Universitätsstraße 32). Additionally, the institute recently established the Porous Media Lab (PML) as a shared laboratory for porous media characterization, including several laboratory rooms.
All together, the professors and scientific staff offer a wide teaching spectrum (mostly related to mechanical topics) for a variety of study programs at the University of Stuttgart. Naturally, some of these study programs (for instance Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, COMMAS, SimTech) exhibit large overlaps with the institute's research interests. Please visit the corresponding subpages regarding more information about teaching and research activities of the institute.
Otto Mohr
Photo: (c) Universitätsarchiv Stuttgart
Edmund Autenrieth
Photo: (c) Universitätsarchiv Stuttgart
Karl Kriemler
Photo: (c) Universitätsarchiv Stuttgart
Georg Wiarda
Photo: (c) Universitätsarchiv Stuttgart
History
The roots of the Institute of Applied Mechanics (MIB) go back to Otto Mohr, who was a main teacher (= professor) at the Polytechnic (predecessor of the University) in Stuttgart from 1867 to 1873, and should probably be regarded as the first full-time representative of (engineering) mechanics here. He was followed by Edmund Autenrieth (1873 - 1907), Karl Kriemler (1907 - 1933) and Georg Wiarda (1935 - 1945 and again 1947 - 1957, after his denazification process). At Wiarda's time, the single chair was called 'Chair of Advanced Mathematics and Engineering Mechanics for civil engineers and geodesists' (literally translated from German).
A second independent chair dealing with mechanics was set up by Hans Bufler starting in the mid 1970s, meanwhile Alfred Slibar (1957 - 1966, first actual institute director) and Udo Wegner (1966 - 1971) directed the long-standing chair (associated with the 'Institute of Mechanics'). In the year 1970, the two chairs merged to form the institute (roughly) in its current organizational form. Hans Bufler shaped the second chair from 1965 to 1994, whereas Herbert Bednarczyk succeeded Udo Wegner from 1972 also until 1994 for the first chair. In 1995, the predecessors of the current chair holders, Christian Miehe (1995 - 2016, Chair of Materials Theory) and Wolfgang Ehlers (1995 - 2017, Chair of Continuum Mechanics), took over the management of the chairs of the Institute of Applied Mechanics (MIB).
Contact to the Chair Holders:
Marc-André Keip
Prof. Dr.-Ing.Chair Holder
[Photo: Marc-André Keip]
Holger Steeb
Prof. Dr.-Ing.Institute Director
[Photo: Holger Steeb]
Felix Fritzen
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Math. techn.Chair Holder
[Photo: Felix Fritzen]