N. Schwarzer graduated in physics from the University of Chemnitz in July 1991. After several research projects abroad and a PhD in the field of contact mechanics in 1998, he became an assistant professor at the University of Chemnitz in 1999. In 2005, he founded the Saxonian Institute of Surface Mechanics on Germany’s biggest island, Ruegen (www.siomec.de/kranich). He has published a variety of papers, mainly in the fields of basic research and application of contact mechanical approaches for laminates, composites, and layered materials. Because of the need for better stability prediction and socioeconomic models, he started to apply concepts from theoretical physics in more down-to-earth fields like material science, school transport, and sales market analysis. Some of this work has finally led to ideas for the improvement of the original theoretical concepts.
