Paul Mayrhofer is University Professor of Materials Science at the Institute of Materials Science and Technology, and chairs the Materials Science Division at the University TU Wien, Vienna, since 2012. He received a Dr. in 2001 and Habilitation in 2005 in Materials Science at the University of Leoben. Paul spent his post-doc and Erwin-Schrödinger-Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, RTWH Aachen, and Linkoping University. Paul is currently Dean of Academic Affairs for Materials Science, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at TU Wien. Editor for Short Communications of Vacuum, and in the Editorial Board of Surface and Coatings Technology and Ceramics in Modern Technologies.

Paul has pioneered age hardening within hard ceramic thin films based on ternary nitrides and borides and is fascinated by phase transitions in general. His research activities focus on the development and characterization of vapor phase deposited nanostructured materials by a combination of computational and experimental material science. He won the prestigious START price of the Austrian Science Fund and served scientific societies in numerous appointed and elected positions such as being a member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, President of the Austrian Vacuum Society, Chair of the Advanced Surface Engineering Division of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). Paul is Fellow of AVS for Seminal contributions in the development of vapor phase deposited nanostructured materials and self-hardened protective coatings of ternary nitrides and borides.