Interview with Max
What’s your name?
Max Marian
What are your hobbies?
Mainly exploring new cultures by traveling, learning new languages and cooking local dishes as well as various kinds of outdoor activities, especially camping, hiking, running and football.
What did you study and what is your highest educational attainment?
I studied Industrial Engineering and Management with focus on Mechanical Engineering at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany and graduated as M.Sc. Also, I gained some experience abroad at the Tongji University Shanghai, China as well as the Universidad de Chile in Santiago de Chile.
Where do you work and what’s your position?
I am research assistant (academic council) at the Engineering Design Institute of FAU Erlangen where I am teaching and conducting research in the Machine Elements and Tribology group.
Since when are you part of working group “Young Tribologists“?
I first joined the Young Tribologists at the working group meeting in February 2019 in Graz, Austria and since then I have participated very regularly in the symposia and meetings.
In which part of the group are you currently participating?
I am supporting the “symposia group”, where we are annually organizing the Young Tribological Researcher Symposium (YTRS). I get involved there with full commitment since the event is a fantastic opportunity for young researchers to present and discuss their results in a relatively informal atmosphere and to network. This is of course not only for working group members, we welcome everyone who is interested.
Why are you a member of working group “Young Tribologists”?
Because the meetings with similar-minded, young tribologists are simply great fun and the participation always is an enrichment both personally and professionally. It helps me in expending my perspective on tribology and provides insights into other research institutes or R&D departments. In addition, I established new contacts, which is why I always know someone at conferences and also have points of contact for various tribological issues or challenges I am facing.
How did you end up in the field of tribology?
Fortunately, there are some very nice classes at FAU in this direction, especially rolling bearing technology as well as tribology and surface technology. Through my work as a student assistant and my project and master thesis, I have already had the opportunity to get a taste of the machine elements/tribology group at the Engineering Design Institute. This is how I slipped into an ongoing research and my PhD project Over time, I became increasingly fascinated by the field and discovered more and more new aspects.
What topics are you working on and are there any connections to the field of tribology?
My research focuses on different aspects of surface engineering/functionalization for tribo-systems with the goal of increasing the energy efficiency of various applications. I have a special interest in elastohydrodynamics and synovial joint lubrication as well as amorphous carbon coatings and micro-texturing. Thereby, I’m working on experiments as well as on developing accurate numerical models and using modern machine learning and optimization algorithms.
Do you have any favorite anecdote about the broad field of tribology?
No particular anecdote, but I simply love the versatility and interdisciplinarity of the field. This is how you always discover new aspects and research questions.