Professor Fritz Klocke Receives High Honor from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME)

Klocke has headed the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology IPT in Aachen since 1995 and holds the chair position at the RWTH Aachen Laboratory of Machine Tools and Production Engineering. The American engineering society SME has awarded him the Eli Whitney Productivity Award for the development of number of new production processes and his findings in futher development of exisiting processes.

Every year the SME awards seven international awards to individuals in production engineering, who have rendered outstanding services in production technologies and processes, as authors of scientific-technical works, in training and teaching, as well as research, management, and the service sector. Award winners are announced and honored during a celebratory gala during the SME annual meeting. The Eli Whitney Productivity Award has been given since 1957, honoring special services in production technologies.
 
Aside from the Otto Kienzle commemorative coin of the German Academic Society for Production Engineering, the Fraunhofer Medal, and honorary doctorates from the Universities of Hannover; Thessalonica, Greece; and Keio, Japan, the Eli Whitney Productivity Award is another recognition of Klocke's achievements in production engineering. The SME had already appointed him to the College of Fellows in 2012. The society, located in Dearborn, Michigan, elects members from different fields of mechanical engineering to this college every year.
 
After his studies in production engineering, Fritz Klocke went to TU Berlin. He was an academic staff member at the TU Berlin Institute of Tool Machines and Production Engineering and worked as chief engineering. After his doctoral studies, earning a Dr.-Ing. in 1982, Klocke worked in the industry sector for many years. He was appointed University Professor of Production Processes at RWTH Aachen on January 1, 1995. Since then Klocke has been Chair of Production Processes and a member of the board at the RWTH Aachen Laboratory of Machine Tools and Production Engineering as well as Head of the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Engineering IPT.