Michael Bockstaller
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Courtesy Appointment, Chemistry
Michael Bockstaller is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Carnegie Mellon University. Bockstaller received his B.S. in Chemistry from the Technical University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany) in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany) in 2000. He was a scientific assistant at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany) from 1997-2000 and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2000-2004. During 2004-2005 he held a position as group leader at RWTH Aachen University (Aachen, Germany) before joining the MSE Department Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. Professor Bockstaller is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an Emmy Noether Grant recipient of the German Science Foundation.
Bockstaller's broader research interests center about structure-property-performance relations in polymer hybrid materials. Areas of special interest currently entail optical and thermal transport properties of polymer nano composites and the development of polymeric hybrid materials for applications in solid state lighting as well as battery technologies.
Education
2000 Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University
1997 BS, Chemistry, Technical University of Karlsruhe
Media mentions
CBS News Pittsburgh
Bockstaller discusses his self-healing plastic research with CBS News Pittsburgh
MSE’s Michael Bockstaller discusses his self-healing plastic research with CBS News Pittsburgh.
CMU Engineering
Harnessing the building blocks of polymer recycling
Michael Bockstaller and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski make foundational discovery to improve the recyclability of polymers.
Materials Science and Engineering
Summer course introduces nanomaterials to high school students
Michael Bockstaller has been introducing high school sophomores to the fundamentals of materials science and nanotechnology since 2009.
CMU Engineering
Simulating engineering experiments at home or in the lab
The use of force-feedback joysticks in lab demonstrations could forever change engineering education, especially for students in underresourced environments or those affected by disaster.
CMU Engineering
Air Force partnership to fuse AI and materials research
CMU and Air Force Research Laboratory establish 5-year, $7.5M Center of Excellence in data-driven materials research.
Mechanical Engineering
Polymers, printing, and pathways
A novel approach to 3D printing using a support bath can greatly expand the types of polymers that can be printed, enable chemical reactions of the printed materials to gain novel material properties, and increase the mechanical strength and reduce the print time of mechanical parts through design optimization.
CMU Engineering
Organizing quantum dots
Michael Bockstaller receives DOE-BES grant to study what causes nanoparticles to assemble into organized structures when polymer chains are attached to the particle’s surface.
Bockstaller to present at DOE meeting on LED solid state lighting
MSE’s Michael Bockstaller was invited to participate and present at a roundtable meeting on LED solid state lighting in Washington D.C. organized by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
CMU Engineering
Oh, behave: controlling nanoparticles
To create new nanomaterial technologies such as next-generation lighting, challenges underpinning the science and engineering of nanoparticles must be resolved.
CMU Engineering
Department news
The initiatives underway in the College’s departments embody the value we place on progress. Here are some of our current projects and prides.