Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems

The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems was established in 1996. The founding director is Prof. em. Dr.-Ing. Ernst Dieter Gilles. The institute in Magdeburg is the first institute of the Max Planck Society dedicated to the engineering sciences and is intended to bridge the gap between basic research and industrial applications.

Mission:
The global challenges associated with the ever-increasing world population, the depletion of natural resources and climate change make the development of sustainable production technologies essential. The development of advanced processes which allow a much more efficient production of chemicals, transportation fuels, food and (bio)pharmaceuticals as well as the transformation and storage of renewable energies is a formidable task for the current and future generations. Achieving breakthroughs in providing solutions to these issues requires tremendous joint international efforts across several scientific disciplines.

In this broad context the main goals of the research activities carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg are to develop mathematical models capable of describing complex chemical, biotechnological and energy-related processes and to analyze the system properties and dynamic behavior of these processes using the models. After validation, these models should be used to design and control efficient and sustainable production processes.

The activities of the institute are focused on the following areas: chemical process engineering, bioprocess engineering, energy systems engineering, process systems engineering, systems and synthetic biology, plus systems theory and control engineering. The objectives of the Max Planck Institute do not only require the development, application and experimental validation of process and systems engineering approaches, but also the establishment of new computational methods and advances in systems and control theory.