Articel about Dr. Pegah Shakeri
11.12.2023 | VDMA-Magazin Dezember 2023
After completing her master's degree in Iran, Pegah Shakeri came to Germany to pursue a doctorate in physics and completed her studies at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in 2022.
Read the entire article from the VDMA December 2023 issue:
https://www.vdma.org/vdma-magazin
Since the beginning of 2023, she has been R&D Manager at Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH in Dormagen, where she develops innovations in the field of coating technology. "Companies come to us with ideas for which there are often no solutions yet," she says, describing her day-to-day work, "our job is to develop them."
The day began for the 33-year-old with an online meeting. A European food manufacturer wants to develop new packaging for its products, moving away from plastic and towards a biodegradable material. "Many of my projects focus on sustainability”, she says shortly before the meeting. In conversation with the project partners, Pegah Shakeri reports in fluent English on the status and results of her research. The topic is complex, the atmosphere is relaxed, and her sense of humor lightens the conversation. After a good hour, the meeting is over, the project partner is satisfied with the progress of the project - and so is Pegah Shakeri: "Solving problems is one of my passions."
The next task is already building up on the screen. You can see a model of a system in which a laser dries a coating layer. Until now, this has been done in conventional dryers, but the efficiency of this process is poor. "The laser, on the other hand, works exactly where you direct it," she explains. The theory is in place, soon it will be time to put it into practice. The digital model is a one-to-one simulation of the planned system. It has been found that even minimal temperature differences in the laser have a strong influence on the coating material. "Knowing this effect now will save us a lot of effort and money with the pilot system," she says.
It is only a few meters from the office to the R&D centre. In an area of 1,200 square meters, Coatema makes its facilities available to customers for use, whether for basic research or for the production of small batches. Pegah Shakeri puts on a smock and protective goggles and mixes chemical substances to create the ink required for a coating. This is then applied to the substrate using a roll-to-roll process. She scrutinizes the coating of an element for a car battery: "Almost perfect," she says. Anyone who knows her knows that tomorrow she will be working on developing something that is not just almost perfect, but absolutely perfect.
Even in the evening, Pegah Shakeri is still connected to her work. She enjoys talking to her father about the innovations and daily challenges at work. A technical discourse reveals the shared expertise of daughter and father, both immersed in the intricacies of complex fluids. It becomes clear how proud the father is of his daughter's career path.
