After his apprenticeship as an electronics technician Patrick Zank studied industrial engineering for material sciences at the University of Applied Sciences in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. His research work focused on the material testing of additive manufactured components.Since 2020 he is a Project Engineer for Battery and Energy Storage Systems at VDE Renewables, where his responsibilities include technical due diligence reports and system cunsultancy. In addition, he is part of the DKE working group 371.1.14 which deals with the stationary use of lithium-ion batteries from the automotive sector, including 2nd life applications.