Since 2014, the DGM has been awarding the DGM Pioneer to personal members of our professional association who, through their commitment, have become pioneers in scientific networking and modern cooperation between academic and industrial research. We would like to congratulate PD Dr.-Ing. Anja Weidner, Institute of Materials Engineering, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, as DGM Pioneer 2024.

1) Dr. Weidner, what does being awarded the DGM Pioneer Prize mean to you and how has your continuous commitment to the DGM community over the past 15 years shaped your path from a young scientist to a nationally and internationally recognized expert?

I am very surprised and delighted to receive the DGM Pioneer Award. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the nomination and the vote of the Award Committee, as well as the support of the DGM Advisory Board and the DGM Executive Board. The recognition of my scientific achievements in the field of in-situ characterization and testing to address practical problems in materials engineering with the DGM Pioneer Award is a great honor and distinction for me. It means a lot to me. It shows me that it is worthwhile to pursue one's goals consistently and persistently. At the same time, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my companions, mentors, colleagues, graduate students and the members of the DGM/DVM working group "In-situ 2D and 3D Characterization", without whose support and cooperation this path would not have been possible. A central role is also played by the DGM community, which I have come to know and appreciate over the past 15 years as an ideal platform for networking and exchanging experiences with national and international scientists, be it at conferences, training courses or in the various working groups. I would like to emphasize that the DGM has become much younger and more female in the last 15 years, which has significantly increased its attractiveness for young scientists in the field of materials science and engineering.

2) Your research in the field of microstructural explanation of mechanical properties of materials has produced impressive results. What sparked your interest in this particular research topic and what key challenges have you overcome?

During my undergraduate and doctoral studies at the Institute of Materials Science at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, I became very interested in the various methods for investigating the microstructure of metallic materials after different manufacturing and machining processes and their influence on the mechanical properties of the materials. For example, my doctoral thesis initially focused on the characterization of texture and microstructure using X-ray diffraction analysis on various model materials after plastic forming by cold rolling. My first contact with in-situ investigations was at the Institute of Structural Physics at the Technical University of Dresden, where I worked on the cyclic activity of persistent slip bands in pure nickel and the growth of microstructural short cracks in austenitic steels and performed in-situ fatigue tests using a scanning electron microscope. In 2009 I had the opportunity to deepen the topic of in-situ characterization and testing within the SFB 799 "TRIP-Matrix Composite" as project leader of the subproject of the same name using austenitic steels with TRIP and TWIP effect. The challenge here was to accompany the in-situ investigations in the scanning electron microscope with digital image correlation in order to determine strain localization in deformation bands and/or mechanical twins or in deformation-induced martensite grains. The difficulties lay in the application of a suitable contrasting method of the sample for digital image correlation and in the small size of the objects to be analyzed, which was in the range of a few micrometers. Finally, by using an old technique - etching - it was possible to achieve such fine surface structures in the nanometer range that it was possible to determine local strain fields in the sub-micrometer range. Another challenge for me personally since 2009 has been to apply the measurement and evaluation of acoustic emission signals to characterize the temporal sequence of different deformation mechanisms in the aforementioned materials. I received a lot of support from Prof. Alexei Vinogradov, with whom I have not only a scientific connection but also a close friendship.

3) You founded the DGM/DVM working group "In situ 2D and 3D characterization" and have led it for about 10 years. What approaches and methods have you developed to successfully lead and develop this working group? 

The inaugural meeting of the DGM/DVM working group "In situ 2D and 3D characterization" took place in November 2013 in Berlin at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing. Prof. Pedro Portella was the initiator of the idea for this working group, which was to strengthen the joint committee "Scanning Electron Microscopy" as a third pillar alongside the working groups "EBSD" (Dr. Gert Nolze) and "Fracture Surface Analysis" (Dr. Dirk Bettge). I still remember how positively surprised I was by the response to the invitation to the inaugural meeting, which was accepted by more than 40 participants from all regions of Germany. The founding participants included representatives from universities and colleges, as well as equipment manufacturers for scanning electron microscopes, in-situ testing facilities, and software developers, e.g. for digital image correlation. The majority of the founding members have remained loyal to the working group to this day. And so we have overcome the dry spell of the Corona years and are back to 30 to 40 participants at the 1.5 day events that take place once a year at different locations. Over the past 10 years, it has always been important to me to build a bridge between the users of in-situ testing and characterization methods and the companies and equipment manufacturers. The focus was therefore less on the actual research results and more on the challenges that arose in the individual in situ experiments with regard to the applied instrumentation technology or the feasibility of the individual experiments. For example, the working group led to a close cooperation between the company Kammrath&Weiss, which manufactures deformation modules for in-situ testing with a scanning electron microscope, and the company Chemnitzer Werkzeugmechanik GmbH, which develops software for the digital image correlation process. As a result of this intensive collaboration, a video extensometer adapted to the in-situ tensile/compression deformation module was developed, which measures strain directly on the specimen based on digital image correlation.

4) What advice would you give to other female scientists pursuing a similar career in materials science and engineering?

I would advise young women scientists that determination and perseverance will pay off, even if the road sometimes seems rocky and arduous. In particular, I would encourage them that with the opportunities and tools available today, it is possible to balance family, work, and career development. But the support of good mentors is also important for your own career development. I have been fortunate to have had, or still have, a handful of such people close to me over the past 30 years since graduating. I have benefited greatly from this, not least because they have pushed me and encouraged me to explore new avenues, try new things and take on new challenges.