With knowledge and interests spanning a myriad of varied topics, Dr. Steffen Lang is the sort of person you’d want at a dinner party. Analytical, yet artistic, he’s someone who doesn’t need to be categorized as a scientist or a creative — he can clearly be both.
“I’m interested in a lot of things,” he says. “I think it’s also part of my job to spread interests widely rather than deeply. I cannot only do one thing.”
During the working week, you’ll find Steffen amongst fellow scientists in a high-voltage laboratory in Erlangen, Germany. Part of his role is to create recipes for plastics with new properties (for example, plastics with specialized electrical conductivity are essential when making machines like generators). Whenever new materials are created, they have to be subjected to extensive tests, including being fired with 70,000 volts to ensure they can withstand extreme temperatures.
“If they pass the test, then it will be something new that nobody has reached before,” he says. “This is exciting, and something you can feel sometimes in your fingers or your stomach.”
He speaks with a sense of pride, clearly fascinated by the possibilities of his role. “One hundred and fifty years ago, Werner von Siemens [Siemens’ founder] first developed the generator — and we’re still improving it today,” he says.
But it’s not only plastics that get tested in the lab. Two years ago, Steffen completed a PHD thesis, where he studied Magnum Gold ice creams. His project was to modify the material within the golden outer layer of the ice cream so it could conduct electricity.
“Since I was a little boy, I was interested in engineering,” he says. “Not science, more engineering. I played all the time with Lego and I completely disassembled, painted and reassembled my first motorbike at 15.” As he grew up, his passion for making things work didn’t fade, and he was handed a project when at university that would see him achieve a world-first.
“My professor came to me and said, ‘I have an idea; I want you to build a motorcycle that’s powered with gas rather than normal fuel’,” says Steffen. “He gave me €15,000 and told me I could buy any motorbike I wanted.”
Along with other students, Steffen picked a BMW bike. Together, they modified the motor and developed exhaust tubes with compressed natural gas. The bike could reach speeds of 220km/h, the fastest motorbike in the world powered by compressed natural gas. “I think they published it in every single newspaper in Germany — it was on several television shows,” he says.
Though Steffen’s career eventually led him to material — rather than mechanical — engineering, he remains a fervent fan of motorbikes. He has two: a 1.7litre custom-built Harley-Davidson and a Suzuki GSX 1000-S.
When he’s not tearing up Germany’s roads on his motorbike, Steffen likes to paint using soil as his medium. “The earth has really different colours,” he says. “I always paint pictures using the earth as a paint — earth I’ve dug within a 1km radius of where it’s painted.” He creates abstract paintings which are deeply connected with the landscape he’s painted them within.
He lets his imagination run wild when creating his atypical art, with works frequently depicting fantastical scenes, such as bodies growing from the earth to become trees. Whatever you may think about soil painting, Steffen’s distinctive artwork has not gone without its admirers; his collection has been displayed in the town hall in his hometown in Germany.
Steffen is an eccentric; one of a rare breed of fascinating individuals who embraces being refreshingly different. He’s someone who doesn’t ‘fit’ into a traditional stereotype of having an artistic or logical mind — and why should he? He’s proof that you can have both. After all, as the world-famous physicist Albert Einstein once said, “The greatest scientists are artists as well”.
At Siemens, Steffen Lang is a project manager within Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) based in Erlangen, Germany. Find out more about working with Siemens.
Photography: Andrew Shaylor
Illustration: Monica Merinodepaz
