Speakers & Chairmen

Professor Cronin is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Trauma Biomechanics and Injury Prevention and leads the Neck Model Centre of Expertise for the Global Human Body Models Consortium, developing one of the most detailed and biofidelic human body models used globally by industry and academics. His research is focused on tissue-level injury prediction and injury prevention.

Marcy Edwards is a Senior Research Engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and conducts research on occupant protection, primarily in the areas of rear impacts, rear seat occupant safety, and child passenger safety. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia USA.

Andre Eggers is a researcher at BASt (German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute) since 2006 working in the area of biomechanics, evaluation of dummies, human models and virtual testing. He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg and Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University. 2013 he completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin. He contributed to several European research projects like IMVITER, THORAX, ASSESS, SENIORS and OSCCAR. He is representing BASt in Euro NCAP working groups related to injury criteria and virtual testing.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Fehr studied Mechatronics in Stuttgart and Mechanical Engineering in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. From 2006 till 2011 he was a research assistant and doctoral student at the University of Stuttgart. Afterwards, as a simulation engineer at TRW Automotive GmbH, he was in charge of the development of new mechatronic vehicle safety systems. From 2014 to 2020 Jörg Fehr was a Junior Professor at the Institute for Engineering and Computational Mechanics and Cluster of Excellence Simulation Technology (SRC SimTech) of the University of Stuttgart. Since March 2020 he has a permanent position as a deputy head of the Institute for Engineering and Computational Mechanics. One goal of his current research is the development of validation and simulation strategies for active human body models for the simulation of new mobility solutions and the speedup of the simulations using linear and nonlinear model reduction methods.

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Andreas Forster is driving innovation in passive safety systems, with a strong focus on pre-crash safety, occupant monitoring, adaptive restraint systems, and Euro NCAP requirements. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Munich and began his career developing software and algorithms for airbag control units at Siemens VDO and Continental. Over the years, he has managed several safety development projects across different stages of the automotive lifecycle. Today, he is responsible for innovation management within the airbag control unit platform, shaping the next generation of occupant protection technologies.

Ulrich Freyberger is a mechanical engineering graduate from the Technische Universität München. He began his professional career at Audi AG, working on side and front impact simulations in body development. From 2001 to 2009, he led simulation and system integration teams at Autoliv BV&Co.KG, focusing on restraint systems and airbag component development. Since 2009, he has been Head of the Competence Center for Vehicle Safety at CDH AG, where he is responsible for body development, occupant and pedestrian protection, and interior simulation.

Michael Gumprecht has been an expert within Validation Services since 2010 and is responsible for the internal validation of vehicle safety for automotive seats throughout the Group, with a focus on airbag integration and low-speed rear crash. Previously, he was the engineer responsible for whiplash and airbag integration in various projects.

Selcuk Himmetoglu received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Loughborough University, England. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Mechanical Engineering Department of Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. His research interests include computational multi-body dynamics, vehicle crash safety, injury biomechanics, whiplash, human-body modelling, anthropomorphic test devices (dummies), vehicle restraint systems, integrated (active and passive) safety systems, kinematics and dynamics of robotic mechanical systems.

Astrid Linder is Professor of Traffic Safety at Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI, an Adjunct Professor at Chalmers University, Sweden, and Adjunct Professor (Research) at Monash University, Australia. She received her PhD in traffic safety from Chalmers from where she also has a MSc in Engineering Physics. Traffic safety, models of the human in crash testing, injury prevention and crash related countermeasures are main fields of her research. Prof Linder initiated and led the research resulting in the world’s first physical dummy model based on the average female, the Seat Evaluation Tool (SET 50F) for assessment of the vehicle occupant safety and is listed as one of 100 most inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2023 by BBC and on Forbes 50 Over 50 2025.

Ulrich Meier-Noe studied mechanical engineering in Paderborn, Nottingham and Paris and obtained his doctorate in 2003 at the Chair of Automation Technology in Paderborn. For years, he has been involved in various, mostly dynamic tests and experiments in the context of aviation, automotive engineering and defense technology. Highly dynamic processes play a particularly important role here. In addition to project management, test planning and analysis of test results, he focuses on the optimization of processes and the documentation of test results.

Meghna Rajkumar Vadhyar is a Master’s student in Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures at the University of Stuttgart. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India, completed in 2021. Following her graduation, she worked as a Product Design Engineer at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India. She also gained experience through her role as a Working Student at Mercedes-Benz AG in Sindelfingen, where she worked in the Passive Safety and Restraint Systems team within the AMG division. Since the beginning of her Master’s, she has been actively involved in academic research as a student assistant at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics, working under the guidance of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Fehr. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of occupant safety, with a particular focus on crash and injury mechanics.

Volker Sander has been head of the Vehicle Safety Department of ADAC, which includes active safety, passive safety and accident research, since 2010. Before that, from 1999-2007 he was in charge of the construction of ADAC’s crash test lab as a team manager. From 2007-2010 he led the Passive Safety Department of ADAC. At Euro NCAP he is a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the frontal impact working group. In addition to that he is member of the side impact working group, the technical working group and the ratings group of Euro NCAP. He is also lecturer for vehicle safety at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.

Victor Alvarez has a M.Sc. in Solid Mechanics and earned his Ph.D. in 2017 at the Royal Institute of Technology on the topic of human body modelling and vulnerable road users. Since then he has worked as a consultant, providing services within human body modelling, tissue biomechanics and finite element modelling. During his career he has worked with development of human body models, simulation driven product design and research projects. Today, customers range from the vehicle industry, military and to medical applications.

Ricardo Tejero is Lead CAE Engineer at Humanetics Europe, specializing in ATDs, HBMs, injury biomechanics, and virtual testing. From 2021 to 2024, he worked in R&D at Apple, analyzing the occupant safety in unconventional seating positions using human body models. At Opel (2010–2020), he led CAE method development for occupant protection, oversaw virtual integration of seats and restraint systems, and optimized passive safety performance for global vehicle platforms. Earlier roles at engineering suppliers in Germany focused on structural and safety CAE for vehicle and seat development. Ricardo holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and brings 20+ years of international experience.

Philipp Toelke is general manager of the Seattle Safety Germany GmbH which is a 100% daughter company of Seattle Safety LLC in Seattle. Philipp is responsible for the European market and works very close with the engineering in Seattle at the development and market introduction of new Seattle Safety products. Philipp has a diploma degree in Engineering from Braunschweig University (Germany) and he worked in the field of vehicle safety for the last 17 years.

Mathias Wolff is Sales Manager at Humanetics and a seasoned expert in 3D metrology and 6D real-time dummy positioning systems. With a background in Engineering Geodesy and Surveying from Hamburg, Mathias built his expertise over many years at AICON before joining Humanetics in 2017. His deep technical knowledge and industry experience make him a trusted voice in the field of precision measurement and safety testing technologies.