Prof. Manfred Wirsum

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Manfred Wirsum is a full professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of RWTH Aachen University. He is the head of the Institute of Power Plant Technology, Steam and Gas Turbines. Prof. Wirsum leads a team of about 15 researchers and 15 lab staff. He is author and co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications on a wide range of energy and power conversion topics. Prof. Wirsum has supervised more than 40 PhD candidates (either in projects or as a co-supervisor).

Prof. Wirsum studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart / Germany and Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, USA. He earned his Ph.D. (with honors) at the Institute of Energy Technology, University of Siegen / Germany with research in the field of power plant technology, particularly fluidized bed combustion.

Prof. Wirsum is also a scholar of the ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT FOUNDATION (AvH) and a research scholar of the DEUTSCHEN FORSCHUNGSGEMEINSCHAFT (DFG). He completed his academic work with a habilitation in the field of „Thermal Energy Technology“ and served as Assoc. Prof. and lecturer at the University of Siegen / Germany between 2004 and 2010.

Between 2002 and 2010 Prof. Wirsum was employed by ALSTOM Power (Switzerland) as a performance and cycle specialist for gas turbines. From 2005 onward he was leading the “Advanced Technologies” at ALSTOM Technology Centre and was engaged in the development of numerous future oriented power generation technologies.

Since 2010 Prof. Wirsum is a full professor at RWTH Aachen / Germany. His main research activities are dedicated to gas turbine combustion – including hydrogen combustion, to aerodynamic and thermal analysis and optimization of turbomachines and to power generation processes in general. In particular the integration of renewable energy into the electricity supply infrastructure is in his focus.

University and working unit:

RWTH Aachen University is one of the leading European universities with a strong focus on engineering topics. The university educates over 45,000 students from about 130 different countries countries.

The Institute of Power Plant Technology, Steam and Gas Turbines is one of about 10 energy related institutes of RWTH Aachen University. Its domains are the research on turbomachines, on conventional and renewable thermal power generation concepts and on thermal energy storage. The Institute of Power Plant Technology, Steam and Gas Turbines operates numerous large scale test facilities for turbo-compressor and turbine research, for hydrogen combustion in gas turbines and for turbocharger performance and for machine vibration studies.