Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Bastian E. Rapp

University of Freiburg
Microsystem Engineering, Material Science

Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025

Last Update: 08.11.2024

Curriculum Vitae

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bastian E. Rapp is the Full Professor of Process Technology at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and head of the NeptunLab. He is the Managing Director of the Freiburg Material Research Center (FMF). He is cofounder, founding CEO and current CTO of the spin-off Glassomer GmbH which commercializes next-generation 3D printing processes for glass.

For his work he was awarded, among others, the Edison Prize of the General Electric (GE) Foundation, the GMM award, and the Südwestmetallförderpreis. In 2019 he received an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for his work on tactile displays for the visually impaired. His work has been published in the most important international journals including Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie, Nature and Science and has been featured in national and international radio and print media including the BBC, the New York Times and the Discovery Channel. In 2021 he was nominated by German Minister of Research and Education Anja Karliczek for the German Future Award of the German President for Technology and Innovation. In 2022 he was nominated for the German Future Award of the German President for Technology and Innovation with his spin-off company Glassomer for the development of a new generation of techniques for high-resolution structuring of glass. He is the only supervisor how had two PhD students win the Deutsche Studienpreis of the Körber Foundation, the price for the most important PhD thesis in Germany.

Bastian Rapp studied mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and finished his PhD at the same university in 2008 working on biosensors for biomedical diagnostics. In 2017 he finished his Habilitation at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology with the publication of a textbook on fluid dynamics in microfluidics.

His research focuses on the development of novel materials, processes and applications in microsystem engineering, life sciences and biotechnology as well as instrumental and clinical analytics.

Selected Publications

J. Toombs, M. Luitz, C. Cook, S. Jenne, C. Chung Li, B. E. Rapp, F. Kotz-Helmer, H. Taylor: “Volumetric Additive Manufacturing of Silica Glass with Microscale Computed Axial Lithography”, Science (impact factor: 41.8), 2022 (cover page)
M. Mader, O. Schlatter, B. Heck, A. Warmbold, A. Dorn, H. Zappe, P. Risch, D. Helmer, F. Kotz, F, B. E. Rapp, “High-Throughput Injection Molding of Transparent Fused Silica Glass”, Science (impact factor: 41.8), 372, 182, 2021.
F. Kotz, K. Arnold, W. Bauer, D. Schild, N. Keller, K. Sachsenheimer, T. M. Nargang, C. Richter, D. Helmer, B. E. Rapp: “Three-dimensional Printing of Transparent Fused Silica Glass”, Nature, 544, 337-339, 2017.
D. Helmer, B. E. Rapp: “Divide and print”, Nature Materials (impact factor: 38.9), 19, 131–133, 2020.
F. Kotz, P. Risch, K. Arnold, A. Quick, M. Thiel, A. Hrynevich, P. D. Dalton, D. Helmer, B. E. Rapp: “Fabrication of arbitrary three-dimensional suspended hollow microstructures in transparent fused silica glass”, Nature Communications (impact factor: 12.4), 10, 1, 14939, 2019.
S. Kluck, L. Hambitzer, M. Luitz, M. Mader, M. Sanjaya, A. Balster, M. Milich, C. Greiner, F. Kotz-Helmer, B. E. Rapp: “Replicative manufacturing of metal moulds for low surface roughness polymer replication”, Nature Communications (impact factor: 12.4), 13, 5048, 2022.

FRIAS Project

Prof. Dr. Bastian Rapp is a member of the Project Group “GlassAge – A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation”

The project group investigates the historic and cultural context of one of humankind’s earliest high performance materials the importance of which has only grown with time: glass. Since the early developments in glass shaping, the history of this material has been closely linked to the cultural context. Interestingly, many of the artefacts of glass that survive from premodern contexts today still surpass the dominating methods of glass processing in the 21st century, and many of the effects found in historic specimens have a surprising actuality. As an example, optical metamaterials have been documented over a span of two millennia with current technology unable to replicate the craftsmanship required to make these object. GlassAge will explore the cultural and historic context of glass and the breakthrough developments which have, for various reasons, been largely ignored by modern developments in the material.

Just as bionics takes nature as a model for material innovations, this project asks how the know-how of past cultures can inspire modern material developments. The project group envisions to provide inspiration for modern material systems which reach beyond the mere technological assessment, building on the rich history of material and material processing in its cultural context thus enabling a holistic retro- as well as a prospective vision for material systems in the 21st century.