Dennis M. Kochmann is Professor of Mechanics and Materials and Head of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich. He served as Head of the Institute of Mechanical Systems from 2018-2020 (and as its Deputy Head from 2020-2022), and he was Deputy Head of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering from 2019-2023. From 2022-2025 he served on the ETH Research Commission.

Professor Kochmann received his Diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) in Mechanical Engineering/Applied Mechanics from Ruhr-University Bochum and a Master’s degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he spent one year as a Fulbright fellow. From Ruhr-University Bochum he also received his Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009. After his doctorate, he first moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Engineering Physics, after which he went on to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in September 2010 as a postdoctoral scholar in Aerospace and as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In September 2011, he joined the faculty of Caltech’s Aerospace Department (GALCIT) in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science as Assistant Professor of Aerospace and in November 2016 became Professor of Aerospace. He has been Full Professor of Mechanics and Materials at ETH Zurich since April 2017.

*In partnership with ETH Zürich