Franz Böhm
Why did you choose Northwestern?
Northwestern was the academic partner in the study program of the University of Stuttgart, where I spent my undergraduate and master's years and I spent one year of integrated studies at Northwestern. I must have left such a good impression that I was approached by Professor Ellmer E. Lewis with the question of whether I would be interested in pursuing the PhD under his supervision. Thus, Northwestern was in fact choosing me, instead of the other way around. In retrospect, I am enormously grateful to Prof. Lewis and Northwestern for this unique opportunity!
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience? What was it then and/or what it is now?
Mechanical parts made from ceramics do not fail at some well-defined level of load but some times fail and sometimes they don't. This makes designing those parts really difficult. Prof. Lewis and I wanted to develop probabilistic methods to cope with this problem. As it turned out our approach found application in various fields of engineering design. However, since probabilities are also difficult to deal with most approaches map the approach using probabilities to the conventional approach of safety factors.
Tell us who or what inspired your research and/or work.
The more technical facilities develop and the more we depend on them, the more the fear of these technologies increases (the Chernobyl nuclear accident happend while we were at Northwestern). Thus, the safety of technical equipment/parts, its determination, and its prediction represents the red thread in my academic and professional career.
What are you most proud of in your career to date?
Actually, I am most proud of my PhD from Northwestern, which opened doors for a wonderful career at an international company and ultimately for my current professorship at the University of Applied Sciences of Ulm. It was not only a big academic asset but also provided wonderful friendships, such as we are still enjoying with Prof. Lewis and his family and some fellow students.
Tell us about a current achievement or something you're working on that excites you.
It definitely is the PhD from Northwestern which plays a key role in the current project I am involved in: we are currently establishing a University of Applied Sciences in the New Administrative Capital of Egypt—the first of its kind. Developing the curricula and at the same time, innovative teaching is a very rewarding task.
What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering a similar path?
The most important factor in choosing your career is what you are passionate about. If you are passionate about sharing your knowledge with others (i.e., you want to enter teaching in a school or academia you also must be passionate about learning). I am convinced that you cannot become a good instructor if you are not enthusiastic about learning yourself (by the way a key factor to con