2012 Award Winners
Machines are his passion
Special Prize Winner Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Eberhard Köhler
The jury of the Löhn Prize has awarded a special prize to Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Eberhard Köhler in recognition of his many years of outstanding achievements in technology transfer.
A trained machinist and electric welder, he successfully completed his studies in 1960 at what was then the Karl Marx-Stadt University of Technology (now Chemnitz University of Technology), specialising in ‘Design of Machines and Equipment in General Mechanical Engineering’, and graduated with a Diplom-Ingenieur degree. In 1974, he was awarded a Dr.-Ing. degree.
Eberhard Köhler began his professional career in 1960 as a design engineer at VEB Separatorenbau Hainichen, where he was responsible for the design of centrifuges and packaging machines. After three years there, he took on the role of Technical Manager and Deputy Plant Manager. He subsequently headed a research unit at Berliner Vergaser- und Filterwerke until 1969, when he moved to his alma mater, the Technical University of Karl-Marx-Stadt, as a research assistant. In 1977, he was promoted to senior research assistant at the Chair of Processing Machinery Design. In 1984, Eberhard Köhler was granted a teaching qualification and, one year later, was appointed university lecturer in the field of processing machinery design. This was followed in 1989 by his appointment as professor. From 1989 to 1991, Eberhard Köhler headed the Textile Machinery Design Department. For the following two years, he served as Deputy Director for Research in the Textile and Leather Technology Section. Following his habilitation, he was Vice-Rector for Research at Chemnitz University of Technology from 1991 to 1994, before being appointed to the Chair of Design in General Mechanical Engineering. In the mid-1990s, Eberhard Köhler founded and headed the Institute of General Mechanical Engineering and Plastics Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology. In 2001, he became Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, a post he held until 2003. He subsequently served as Vice-Dean in the same faculty until his retirement in 2005.
Eberhard Köhler began his Steinbeis career in 1990 as a project manager. In 1991, he founded his first Steinbeis company, the Steinbeis Transfer Centre (STZ) for Drive and Handling Technology in Mechanical Engineering. This was followed in 2004 and 2008 by the establishment of the Steinbeis Research Institute for Processing Machinery and Systems and the Steinbeis Innovation Centre for Drive and Handling Technology in Mechanical Engineering. In 2010, Eberhard Köhler and his Steinbeis Transfer Centre, together with their project partner, Siemens AG Generatorenwerke Erfurt, were awarded the Löhn Prize for the development of an innovative bending system for inductor conductors for large generators.
Eberhard Köhler is a brilliant and recognised expert in his field, who has established and expanded his Steinbeis companies with outstanding expertise. He is a Steinbeis man through and through.