Prof. Carlo Burkhardt holds a Ph.D. in metallurgy and materials from the University of Birmingham, UK, and is the current scientific director at the STI–Institute for Precious and Technology Metals.

He is professor of manufacturing technologies at Pforzheim University in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and also professor of materials at the Jožef-Stefan International Postgraduate School in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

He has coordinated/coordinates several large European Union-funded research and development projects dealing with the recycling of Rare Earth permanent magnets, with budgets exceeding €50 million in total.

He holds more than 10 patents and is co-founder and shareholder of two university spin-offs: MetShape GmbH (additive manufacturing of precision metal parts) and HyProMag GmbH (recycling of Rare-Earth permanent magnets).

Carlo won several awards, incl. the German Raw Material Effiency Award and the EcoTech Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg.