At the university where he has now been appointed to the faculty, Gerd Manthei, a trained machine fitter, also completed his initial academic training, graduating in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He pursued Further studies at the Universities Giessen and Frankfurt, earning a diploma in physics. As a research associate at the Battelle Institute in Frankfurt and the Fraunhofer Society in Dresden, he worked on projects related to materials testing and quality assurance. In 1993, he co-founded the Society for Materials Testing and Geophysics with three other partners, where he led research projects in the field of non-destructive and destructive materials testing, funded by the German federal government and the EU. He assumed the management of this limited liability company (GmbH) in 2004. That same year, he completed his advanced academic qualifications with a doctorate ( Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Hamburg.
As a visiting scholar at Cornell University (USA) in the 1990s, he collaborated on a project investigating the fatigue behavior of materials used in aircraft construction. In 2006, with a Marie Curie Foundation grant, he developed a test rig at the University of Gdańsk for testing specific lubricants. Acoustic emission analysis as a method for materials testing is a key focus of his research and development activities. Prof. Dr. Manthei has presented the results of his work in numerous scientific publications. As a long-time lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MMEW) at the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences, he possesses extensive experience in the education of engineers.
During his university years, Gerd Manthei was very successful in sports. As a volleyball player, he played in the first and second Bundesliga for USC Giessen and contributed to his team becoming German champions and cup winners.