Dr. Dieter Schwarze is a true pioneer in additive manufacturing (AM). He started his career in AM in 1989, working on R&D and the commercialisation of Rapid Prototyping. He is co-founder (1996) of the worldwide known and widely used Selective Laser Melting (SLM®) technology and holds many patents in this field. In 2008, he joined Nikon SLM Solutions and today is Chief Engineer at the company headquarter at the Baltic Sea in Lübeck, Germany. Dr. Dieter Schwarze studied physics at the University of Paderborn (UPB), Germany and is chairman of the board of the Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC e. V.) in Paderborn. 
On May 8, 2017, he was honored with the SME Additive Manufacturing Industry Achievement Award at the RAPID + TCT conference in Pittsburgh and in 2025 he received the Big Five Award at the Rapidtech in Erfurt.