Engineering of Functional Interfaces

To put it in a nutshell, our entire biological and technical development of modern life takes place at interfaces: the spectrum ranges from inner and outer cell and organellar membranes to MOS transistors in the supercomputers of AI. The doctoral and postdoctoral conference series 'Engineering of Functional Interfaces (EnFI)' has been targeting on this perspective since 2006/7 and started with the fields of semiconductor sensor technology, materials science and nanotechnologies from the interaction of German and Belgian universities. Over the years, it has developed into a European institution with participants from the two Americas and Japan. The original overarching thematic focus has also led to an actual convergence, with the addition of biosensor technology to chemosensor technology and, almost as a pioneer for today, the trend towards in-vivo sensor technology for implants. And it is implant materials that materials science is increasingly focussing on. A third track has opened up as the associated analytics are increasingly transforming their observational role into a design or modification instrument for interfaces. Representative of this are the contributions in this volume on in situ analytical material development 'Combinatorial property mapping of Titanium-Zirconium thin film libraries as screening for medical material candidates' from the University of Linz, on nanobiotechnological devices '2D-ordered layers of tomato bushy stunt virus via specific binding' from the Technical University of Rhineland-Palatinate and on implant-integrated in-vivo sensor technology 'Functionalized cochlear implant electrode for intracochlear histamine detection via Molecular Imprinted Polymer (MIP) coating' from the KU Leuven. A special feature of the EnFI has always been that a large number of the conference papers have found their way into peer-reviewed journal publications thanks to close supervision. The journal Physica Status Solidi A has proven to be a reliable harbor for this. Its editor Patrick Wagner and editor-in-chief Stefan Hillebrandt have supported the many first publications with great commitment and flexibility, especially during the pandemic. As Prof. Wagner could not make it this round, we the co-editors would like to take this opportunity to thank them warmly in this editorial.