Dietrich Stauffer

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Dietrich Stauffer (born February 6, 1943 in Bonn ; † August 6, 2019 ) was Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cologne . He is known for his research on percolation theory , cellular automata and computational physics in general and their interdisciplinary applications.

Live and act

He was born in Bonn in 1943 as the son of theology professor Ethelbert Stauffer . He did his doctorate in 1970 at the Technical University of Munich , and in 1975 he qualified as a professor at the University of Saarbrücken as an employee of Kurt Binder . Since 1977 he was professor for theoretical physics at the University of Cologne . His main research area is statistical physics . From 1987 to 1990 he headed the research group for many-particle physics at what was then the 'high-performance computing center' at Forschungszentrum Jülich .

For his scientific work, especially on percolation theory and also on cellular automata , Dietrich Stauffer received a number of awards, including a. In 1985 the Humboldt Prize and in 1999 the Gentner-Kastler Prize . Further academic contributions were the systematic improvement and dissemination of numerical methods ( computational physics ) as well as the initiation and implementation of so-called mini-research projects to strengthen the connection between university and school.

For a few years he was mainly concerned with the transfer of physical methods to problems in economics and social sciences (so-called econophysics or sociophysics ). Not least because of this, he had been an honorary doctor of the University of Liège since 2006 .

Stauffer has published several books and over 500 scientific articles. He is known for his unconventional, interdisciplinary applications of statistical physics, for the international co-authorship of many of his articles, and for his generosity towards students and post-docs - for example, being available for hours of discussion and at the same time enabling them to do so to publish their results as the sole author.

He was critical of the changeover from C3 / C4 to W2 / W3 professorships regarding current methods of evaluating academic performance. He advised avoiding criteria "which are more harmful than useful to science, if those assessed are based on these criteria".

In 2008 Dietrich Stauffer was named Outstanding Referee of the American Physical Society .

Literature selection

  • D. Stauffer and H. Eugene Stanley : From Newton to Mandelbrot. A Primer in Theoretical Physics . Springer, Berlin [a. a.] 1990, ISBN 3-540-52661-7
  • D. Stauffer and A. Aharony : Introduction to Percolation Theory . 1992
  • D. Stauffer: Theoretical Physics (A short version, especially for teachers). 1993
  • D. Stauffer, FW Hehl , N. Ito, V. Winkelmann and JG Zabolitzky: Computer simulation and computer algebra . 1993
  • SM de Oliveira, PMC de Oliveira and D. Stauffer: Evolution, money, war and computers . 1999
  • D. Chowdhury and D. Stauffer: Principles of equilibrium statistical mechanics . 2000
  • D. Stauffer, SM de Oliveira, PMC de Oliveira and JS Sa Martins: Biology, Sociology, Geology by Computational Physics . 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ We Mourning created on August 18, 2019 , accessed on August 17, 2019
  2. ↑ Debashish Chowdhury: Dietrich Stauffer: Unconventional in Science and Life , Physica Scripta, Vol. T106, 7–8, 2003.
  3. ↑ Dietrich Stauffer: Uni-Ranking - competition with the Bundesliga? A critical look at the evaluation criteria . Physik Journal 4 (2005) No. 4, pp. 3-4.
personal data
SURNAME Stauffer, Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn , Germany
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 2019