Since 2012 Prof. Zimmermann has been heading the professorship for mechanics of materials and damage analysis at the TU Dresden and the expertise field for materials characterization and testing at Fraunhofer IWS Dresden. Already from 2017 to 2019 she acted as spokeswoman of the advisory board of the German Materials Society and since 2019 also holds the function as vice president.

"Committee work is my way of assuming societal responsibility and participating in designing the technological and social challenges of Germany as a research location," says Martina Zimmermann about her involvement in the professional association. She follows this principle not only within the scope of her DGM commitment, but also as a board member of the German Research Foundation (DFG). With her succession of the current DGM presidents, Prof. Frank Mücklich (Saarland University) and Dr. Oliver Sven Schauerte (Volkswagen AG), she establishes another milestone in her successful professional career.

With her appointment as Association President, the native Rhinelander also wishes to send out a message: "In addition to the further development of our discipline, I hope to set a signal for women in engineering and in natural sciences. I would like to encourage them to get even more involved in our professional network". According to Zimmermann, the science location Dresden offers ideal conditions with its unique density of university and non-university research institutions and, last but not least, with the excellence status of TU Dresden. "The multitude and diversity of materials science and engineering expertise in Dresden's environment is my constant inspiration, but also a source of humbleness towards the many impressive scientific achievements of my colleagues".

With more than 70 expert committees and working groups, the German Materials Society covers almost all classes of materials and process technologies for materials production and processing, from fundamental research to applied science. In addition to the association's work, the future president's team and the DGM managing director Dr. Stefan Klein are particularly interested in promoting the significance of materials science and engineering – above all with regard to the future topics of resource and energy efficiency and artificial intelligence. New concepts for (virtual) events and training courses are being developed in response to the restrictions in the work of the association caused by the pandemic - a challenge that the participants will face as an enthusiastic team.