Dierk Raabe is a Professor of Physical Metallurgy and Metal Physics at RWTH Aachen and honorary Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He co-chaired the 2019 Gordon Conference on Physical Metallurgy. Among several institutional responsibilities Dierk Raabe has chaired the board of Governors of RWTH Aachen University, is a member of the decision committee for Germany’s Excellence Initiative, is a senator of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, has been a member of the Council of Science and Humanities of the German government and is a vice senator of the German Academy Leopoldina.