Meet Our Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Michael H. Eikerling

Prof. Dr. Michael H. Eikerling is a Director at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research in Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, where he is leading a sub-institute for Theory and Computation of Energy Materials, and a full professor of materials science at RWTH Aachen. Prior to joining Forschungszentrum Jülich, Prof. Eikerling was a professor in theoretical chemical physics and electrochemical materials science at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada, from 2003 to 2019. In 2017, Prof. Eikerling was awarded the Alexander Kuznetsov Prize for Theoretical Electrochemistry of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Dr. Mark Kozdras

Dr. Mark S. Kozdras is a professional engineer and an emeritus scientist at Natural Resources Canada’s, CanmetMATERIALS laboratory, as well as the Canadian representative and international co-lead of the Materials for Energy (M4E) Collaboration Platform of Mission Innovation. In addition, Kozdras is an NRCan representative in the joint NRCan/NRC design/development team for the Centre for Accelerated Materials Discovery and Innovation (CAMDI). Recently retired, he plans to maintain his close ties with the energy innovation community for the foreseeable future.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Pascal Friederich

Dr. Frederich is a Junior professor for Artificial Intelligence for Materials Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His research interest includes the development and application of machine learning methods and AI tools specifically for materials science and chemistry.

Management & Coordination

Dr. Kourosh Malek, MBA

Dr. Kourosh Malek is a division head for artificial materials intelligence at IEK-13, leading the establishment of a newly founded simulation and data science lab for energy materials (SDL-EM) at Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH. Prior to joining Forschungszentrum Jülich, he was a senior research officer at NRC-EME modeling and numerical simulations in Vancouver, Canada, a program technical leader for the energy storage program at NRC, and an adjunct professor at the department of chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Malek is managing overall day-to-day operation of GCMAC, coordinating outreach & industry engagement, and leading establishment of various initiatives involving German, European and Canadian partners from industry, government and academia

Dr. Anjuli Szawiola, PMP

Dr. Anjuli Szawiola is a policy analyst at

CanmetMATERIALS, Natural Resources Canada, splitting her time with Natural Resources Canada and the National Research Council Canada. She is supporting the project management of the German-Canadian Materials Acceleration Centre on the Canadian side.

German Canadian Materials Acceleration Centre