Three Questions for Matthias Papra

What's the most exciting part of your job?

Imy job, the daily challenge is to provide the Jülich campus with whatever it needs – whether it’s heat, electricity, or even cold water. To do this, we work with the team at the energy center to keep our systems running and use our resources as efficiently as possible. This starts with checking the weather forecast, assessing what’s needed for the next several days, and planning system startups and shutdowns, all the way through to analyzing operational data so we can improve our forecasts. In the process, we’re constantly learning about the unique characteristics – and even the “quirks” – of our own systems. And who else can say they get to operate three engines with nearly 5,900 horsepower?

If money and time weren't an issue, what would your next project be?

Since we are, in the broadest sense, operating a new, highly efficient power plant using a combined heat, power, and cooling process, and since “Exaheat” – which utilizes the waste heat from our JUPITER supercomputer – is already in the final planning stages for the next facility, I don’t really have any specific requests in this regard. We have a small amount of excess thermal energy that we can’t yet utilize. The energy output might be sufficient to heat a swimming pool. The pool could be built and operated as a heat sink, which would allow this energy to be put to good use.

Who would you like to have dinner with, and what would you talk about?

As someone with a certain affinity for motorsports, even though I don’t participate in them myself, I’d love to have dinner with rally legend Walter Röhrl. We’d chat about cars; I’d love to learn more about his motorsports career and how the various quotes attributed to him came about.