Prof. Klaus Friedrich obtained his PhD degree in Materials Science at the Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany in 1978. He was associated in 1980 as a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, USA. Funding for this stay as a Feodor Lynen Fellow was received from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Afterwards, i.e. between 1982 and 1990, he worked as a Professor for Polymers and Composites at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany. In August 1990, Prof. Friedrich became Research Director for Materials Science at the Institute for Composite Materials (IVW), University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.

He acts also as a Scientific Board Member of various international journals in the fields of materials science, composites, and tribology. Together with his co-workers he has published more than 800 papers in refereed journals, books and conference proceedings. Further, he is editor of five books on “Friction and Wear of Polymer Composites”, “Application of Fracture Mechanics to Composite Materials”, “Advances in Composites Tribology”, “Polymer Composites: From Nano- to Macro-Scale”, and “Tribology of Polymeric Nanocomposites: Friction and Wear of Bulk Materials and Coatings”, respectively. He holds three honorary professorships from distinguished Chinese universities, and two honorary Dr.-degrees. In 2005, Prof. Friedrich was honoured as a World Fellow of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM). Now, i.e. after his retirement from the director position of IVW, Prof. Friedrich acts as a research consultant for various institutes and industrial companies.