Lars Pastewka

Prof. Lars Pastewka is a Full Professor of Simulation at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) within the Faculty of Engineering at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg. His research focuses on multiscale simulation of materials, micromechanics, and tribology, with a particular emphasis on friction, adhesion, and wear. He leads a research group developing computational methods to model materials from atomic to continuum scales.

His expertise includes surface forces, material interfaces, and the design of programmable materials. Key projects include studies on self-repair mechanisms in biological and artificial materials, tribogenerators, and resilient microfluidic networks. He supervises doctoral researchers such as Indre Jödicke and Mahdi Roshani, with past student Dr. Antoine Sanner completing his doctorate under his guidance.

Prof. Pastewka has contributed to open science through tools like dtool and dserver, promoting FAIR data principles. His work spans interdisciplinary collaborations in materials science, biomechanics, and computational engineering. He is actively involved in academic outreach through events like the livMatS Colloquium series and contributes to teaching programs such as the Master Lab and Core Lectures initiatives.

His research has been funded by Germany’s Excellence Strategy (EXC-2193/1) and addresses challenges in surface topography analysis, hydrodynamic lubrication, and material fracture mechanics. His group’s computational frameworks, including matscipy and SYMPLER, have advanced large-scale simulations in materials science.