Steffen Hardt, born 1966, was appointed Head of the Fluidics & Simulation Department at Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM) in 2001. He joined IMM in 1997 as an employee and became Group Leader for modeling and simulation in 1999. The activities of his department are centred around the development and simulation of micro fluids systems. Among his areas of interest are fluidic actuators, multi-phase micro flows, micro mixers, gas-phase reactors and Lab-on-a-Chip systems. Before he became involved in micro fluidics, he worked in the field of theoretical elementary particle physics. He studied physics at the University of Giessen and the University of Washington/Seattle and obtained his Ph.D. with a thesis on quark models.
He is author of more than 30 publications in the field of microfluidics, modeling, and theoretical physics and 10 patents.
Holger Löwe, born in 1953, was appointed Director R&D at Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (Imm) in 1999. Prior, he was head of the Chemistry/Microreaction Technology Department, after being Group Leader of the Electrochemsitry Group. In 1991, he joined the IMM as an employee. In 1984, he moved to the Faculty of Electrochemistry at the Technical College in Ilmenau. There he was Head of the chemical sector at the internal college. Also in 1984, he attained his Ph.D. on alkylation of phenols. From 1977 to 1984, he worked as Research Group Leader at the Filmfabrik Wolffen. He studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig.
He is author of more than 280 publications and 30 patents.