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12.06.2025 19:30
Dr. Lutz Stobbe was honored with the Fraunhofer IZM 2025 Research Award
Measurable data and told stories for sustainable microelectronics – for its pioneering research on sustainable information and communication technologies (ICT) The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM Honors Dr. Lutz Stobbe with the 2025 Research Award. He is recognized for his work to assess the life cycle of ICT infrastructures, especially for data centers and network technologies. With his working group “Sustainable Networks and Computing”, Stobbe is developing detailed ecological evaluation models that precisely capture the environmental impact of digital systems throughout their entire life cycle.
The research of Dr. Lutz Stobbe focuses on a fundamental conviction: “Only what can be measured can be improved.” To make reasonable decisions, such as His research provides exactly this basis. As part of the current Green ICT@FMD project, its models, for example, draw electricity consumption, manufacturing costs, materials and production processes with a high degree of granularity, up to individual assemblies or work steps. The comprehensive nature of this data set facilitates the identification of ecological “hotspots” in digital systems and the subsequent development of specific improvement strategies. For example, new, modular chip designs or alternative manufacturing approaches can be specially tested and optimized for their environmental impact – a decisive step towards ecod design for microelectronics.
Stobbe started his career in microelectronics with a unique background: he originally studied Japanese studies. His first contact with microelectronics occurred through the translation of scientific texts via lead-free electronics from Japanese. In the late nineties, his work led him to Fraunhofer IZM, where he systematically examined environmental technologies. What started as a translation work developed into a scientific career. Lutz Stobbe received his doctorate in the Japanese electronics industry for working on road mapping activities and over the years acquired a comprehensive technical knowledge of microelectronics and communication engineering “at work”, as he puts it. It is exactly his atypical way that has shaped him and is one of the reasons for the success of his work. As someone who has changed the career, he brings a broader perspective to technological problems.
“I think research has to tell a story,” says the price winner. This is exactly where his strength lies: he knows how to represent technical contexts in such a way that they are understandable and convincing for decision -makers from politics, business and society. He succeeds in combining complex, data -driven research with good communication and effects. His projects often do not result from existing financing projects, but from the idea that he then took the initiative to implement. One example is a current project for the development of an environmentally friendly home router with an aluminum housing in which the mechanical structure and the antenna technology were covered. The project was awarded an innovation price without specific tenders in Taiwan.
The researcher not only sees his work as an opportunity to make the technological development more sustainable, but also as an opportunity to exchange knowledge, network and other progress technologies. Since 2019, he has been involved in so -called scientific support for environmental assessment, in which scientists are working on topics such as Green ICT on several financed projects in an interdisciplinary way. There he acts as a moderator, consultant and initiator, but also says that continuous learning is particularly important for him: “Especially in an area like microelectronics that combines so many disciplines, you have to develop further. Learning is part of the job.”
In the long term, Stobbe sees the biggest challenge for the circular design of digital products. In addition to reducing energy consumption, reusability, repairability and recyclability of electronics are becoming increasingly important. Only through such a circular thinking can the digital infrastructure of the future be both efficient and ecologically responsible. Dr. Lutz Stobbe shows that sustainable technology development needs far more than just numbers – it also takes stories to courage to take the initiative, and to take responsibility.
About the award:
Fraunhofer IZM has been organizing the research award for over 20 years to recognize “outstanding research services in microelectronics, microsystem technology and packaging” as well as the transfer of these successes to industry -relevant developments. On June 12, 2025, Dr. Lutz Stobbe The award for his work on “Ecodesign for networks, data centers and other ICT infrastructures based on technological approaches”.
(Text: Lotta Jahnke)
Scientific contact:
Dr. Lutz Stobbe l Environmental and reliability technology L Telephone +49 30 46403-139 L lutz.stobbe@izm.fraunhofer.de L fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM LGUSTAV-Meyer-Allee 25 L 13355 Berlin L www.iz.iz.iz.izun.de.
Original publication:
https: //www.izm.fraunhofer.de/en/news_events/tech_news/fraunhofer-izm-research-a …
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Fltr: Dr. Nils F. Nisses; Prof. Dr. Ulrice Galesh; Dr. Lutter Stobbe & Teacher Dr.-Ing. Martin Schnit …
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