Prof. Dr. Herlitzius holds the Chair of Agricultural Systems Engineering since 2007 and is Director of the newly founded Institute of Natural Materials Technology since 2016. The institute concentrates competencies in retrieval, processing and refinement of natural materials along the entire value chain with respect to, for example, foods, biotechnological products, or wood and fibre-based products in the context of a circular flow economy. Prof.Herlitzius studied mechanical engineering at the TU Dresden and received his doctorate from there. Before returning to the university, he spent 15 years as development engineer and served in different management positions of a major manufacturer of agricultural machinery.