Vita Martin Gurka

PD Dr. rer. nat. habil. Martin Gurka, born 1967, studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and graduated in 1994.

From 1994 to 1998 he was a research associate at the Institute of Applied Physical Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and received his PhD in 1998, working on a topic of nonlinear laser spectroscopy at functional interfaces.

Following his doctorate, Dr. Gurka joined Hörbiger Antriebstechnik GmbH, Schongau, as a project manager in the development of organic and metallic friction materials.

In 2000, Dr. Gurka was appointed Managing Director of Neue Materialien Würzburg GmbH. He was a member of the management of the Kompetenzzentrum Neue Materialien Nordbayern, a transregional competence center for materials research at the Bayreuth, Fürth and Würzburg sites. Between 2000 and 2008, Dr. Gurka represented the field of multifunctional materials and developed production processes and applications for active composites.

Then he joined Fludicon GmbH, Darmstadt. He was head of materials development and set up a production site for electrorheological fluids.

He joined the Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe GmbH in 2010 and heads the Smart Composites & Nondestructive Testing competence field and is deputy head of the materials science department.

After successful habilitation, Dr. Gurka received the venia legendi for "Materials Science of Composite Materials" at the TUK in November 2022.

Offices and Memberships

• Head of the Smart Structures working group at Composites United e.V.
• Second Chairman of the Fachausschuss Faserkunststoffverbunde DGZfP "German Society for Nondestructive Testing e.V."
• Member of the Journal Topic Board of "C Journal of Carbon Research“
• Member of the German Physical Society and the VDI
• Member of the VDI / VDE-GMA Technical Committee "Functional Materials for Mechatronic Systems"
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Photonik Zentrum Kaiserslautern e.V.
• Member of the State Research Center OPTIMAS Center for Optics and Material Sciences of the TU-Kaiserslautern
• Reviewer for the German Research Foundation DFG
• Expert reviewer for various project promoters in national and international promotion calls

Main research areas and interest

• Multifunctional composite materials
• Material-integrated actuators and sensors
• Non-destructive materials testing

Publications

The list of publications is available here.

Patents

• WO/2016/107952, Clip for Aneurysm, T. Menovsky [CZ], T. Asal [DE], M. Steffens [DE], S. Llas Vargas [ES], P. Garcia Roig [ES], M. Charles-Harris Ferrer [ES], M. Serrahima Tornel [ES], M. Gurka [DE], T. Becker [DE]
• DE 10 2015 120 958, Aktives Positionieren von Turbulatorflächenelementen, M. Gurka, M. Hübler , S. Nissle, J. Wassenaar
• DE 10 2015 106 802 B3, Biegeaktuator mit Formgedächtniselement, M. Hübler, L. Fritz, S. Nissle, M. Gurka
• DE 10 2012 012 060.5 Deformationselement zur Absorption der bei einem Crash auftretenden kinetischen Schadenergie, M. Hübler, M. Gurka, S. Schmeer, E. Beeh, M. Kriescher, G. Koop