Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Kirchner, born in 1969, has been a university professor for product development and machine elements at TU Darmstadt since 2016. His research interests focus on sensory machine elements and the necessary product development methods, condition monitoring, and digital twins, as well as design for additive manufacturing. Prof. Kirchner has been a full member of the Scientific Society for Product Development WiGeP since 2019 and a Co-Spokesman of the German Priority Research Program 2305 "Sensor Integrating Machine Elements Pave the Way for Widespread Digitalization" since 2022.