Biographical note

Harald Naunheimer studied at the Universität Stuttgart. He got his degree in mechanical engineering in 1988. Afterwards, he worked as a research assistant in the field of automotive transmissions at the Universität Stuttgart. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1995. Harald Naunheimer is author of the English edition of “Automotive Transmissions”. From 1995-2001 he worked in the vehicle transmissions division of RENK AG in Augsburg, Germany. He joined ZF in 2001 as a senior manager for application engineering in the automatic transmissions business unit at ZF Getriebe GmbH in Saarbruecken, Germany. From 2006–2009 he was Director of Product Development, Automatic Transmissions for ZF Getriebe GmbH, in Friedrichshafen. Harald Naunheimer was named Vice President of Corporate Research and Development at ZF Friedrichshafen AG during July 2009, headquartered in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Professor Bernd Bertsche earned his degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering at the Universität Stuttgart. Afterwards, he worked for Mercedes-Benz AG in the passenger car development unit followed by a position as professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Albstadt-Sigmaringen. Later, he was appointed at the Universität Stuttgart. Since 2001, Professor Bertsche is the ordinary and director for the Institute of Machine Components at the Universität Stuttgart. Joachim Ryborz studied mechanical engineering and worked as research assistant of Professor Gisbert Lechner in the field of automotive transmissions at the Universität Stuttgart. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 2003. He is co-author of the 1st English edition of this book as well as coauthor of the 2nd German edition. Since 2002, he has been working in the transmission development for light commercial vehicle at ZF Friedrichshafen AG, amongst others as project manager for manual, automated and hybrid transmissions. Wolfgang Novak studied mechanical engineering at theUniversität Stuttgart. From 2002–2003 he worked at McLaren Cars Limited as a development engineer for sports car transmissions. Afterwards, he worked as a research assistant of Professor Bernd Bertsche at the drive technology department and he is co-author of the 2nd German edition. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 2010. Since 2008, he has been working in the transmission development center at Daimler AG in Stuttgart, Germany.