September 30th 2025

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Avila was one of the researchers from Oldenburg attending the MatchMaking Symposium Wind Energy, which was organized by VDMA Power Systems together with the Energy Research Networks. The main question: How can research and industry work even more closely together in the future to accelerate the expansion of wind energy? 

Researchers from the Living Lab 70 GW Offshore Wind and members of ForWind were also actively represented among the hundred or so participants from science, business and politics. In various breakout sessions, they contributed their expertise in areas such as system integration and energy transition infrastructure, life cycle management and digitalization.

In the opening discussion, Prof. Dr. Kerstin Avila presented the Living Lab as a key example of application-oriented energy research. She emphasized the importance of collaborative projects between industry, research institutions and universities, which make it possible to combine short-term technological solutions with long-term development paths.

The symposium was not only used for thematic networking, but also to initiate new project partnerships. Representatives from companies such as Siemens Gamesa, Enercon, Vestas and Nordex discussed the future needs of the wind industry with researchers – such as flexible turbine operation, automation and data acquisition standards.

The event impressively demonstrated how important the exchange between science and industry is for the successful implementation of the energy transition – and how the Living Lab 70 GW Offshore Wind is helping to shape this dialog.

Read the interview with Professor Avila here (including a video with several voices from the event): https://www.energieforschung.de/de/aktuelles/interviews/2025/matchmaking-symposium-windenergie-nachhaltig-gestalten

May 3^rd 2023
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Avila presents a keynote lecture “Particle dynamics and flow instabilities in particle-laden pipe flow” at the closing workshop of the SPP 1881 (Turbulent Superstructures), organized by Prof. Jörg Schumacher. Kerstin’s 6-year-old daughter and a nanny accompany her to the workshop.

April 27^th 2023
Girl’s day! Kerstin Avila takes a quiz with the pupils about wind energy and answers many questions. Aga takes the students for a walk inside the wind tunnel and introduces them to 3D dsign construction.

April 12^th 2023 
The semester has started, and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Avila offers a new lecture “Fluid Dynamics: Onset of instabilities and turbulence” for master students of physics, engineering physics or related studies. It takes place in W04 1-172 on Wednesdays at 14:15. More information are provided in StudIP.

March 15^th 2023
Agnieszka Hölling supports us in part-time as an engineer to design new experiments and modify our existing setups. We are happy to learn from you about the active grid from the wind tunnels and to introduce you to our “super-sensitive” setups. Aga, welcome to our group!

March 15^th 2023
Our sloshing experiment that arrived a week before from Bremen has been set up in Oldenburg. Many thanks to the technical staff from the ZARM of the University of Bremen to bring the experiment back to live so quickly. Now we are seeking for students to work with this nice setup.

March 13^th 2023
Prof. Kerstin Avila becomes a member of ForWind. She is especially looking forward to strengthening the cooperation with the University of Bremen, where she worked before.

March 6^th 2023
Kick-Off-party with antipasti and Spanish ham

March 3rd 2023
Dr. Mike Hölling and other members of the group of Prof. Peinke help out to clear lab space for our experiments. Thank you, all a lot!

March 1st 2023
MSc Wilke Trei has joined our group to support scientists using the High-Performance-Computing Cluster. New machines have arrived recently, so Wilke is rather busy. However, we support you to finish your PhD in mathematics. Wilke, welcome to the group!

March 1st 2023
MSc Sonja Steinbrück has joined the group as a PhD student. As a PhD-student of Jun. Prof. Laura Lukassen she has been working on coupling atmospheric simulations of the flow (PALM) to engineering models of wind turbines (FAST). We are happy that she chose our group to continue her PhD and we are looking forward to the close cooperation with Dr. Bernhard Steovesandt (IWES). Sonja, welcome to our group!

March 1st 2023
MSc Bastian Bäuerlein becomes the first PhD student of the group. Already as an engineering student at the University of Bremen he has worked with Kerstin. He is an expert in time-resolved Lagrangian Particle Tracking (or 3D3C Shake-The-Box) and nonlinear resonances. Bastian, welcome to Physics and to Oldenburg

March 1st 2023
Prof. Kerstin Avila was appointed as Professor at the University of Oldenburg, Institute for Physics and the group “Fundamentals of Turbulence and Complex Systems” was established. Press release of Oldenburg University