Gerhard Wilhelm Becker

Gerhard Wilhelm Becker (born August 13, 1927 in Hanover ; † February 2, 2012 in Berlin ) was a German physicist. From 1972 until his retirement in 1992 he was President of the Federal Institute for Materials Testing . From 1978 to 1982 he was President of the VDI .

Life

tomb

From 1946 to 1951 Becker studied physics and mathematics at the Technical University of Braunschweig . Following his diploma, he began his doctoral thesis at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, but then moved to the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in 1952 , where he completed his thesis "On mechanical relaxation phenomena in non-plasticized high-polymer plastics". For this work, the Faculty of Science and Philosophy of the Technical University of Braunschweig awarded him a doctorate in 1954. nat.

Until 1966 he was a scientific employee at the PTB, interrupted by a one year stay at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1963/64. In 1966 he was seconded to the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) . There he took over the management of the “Organic Substances” department in 1967 and the office of Vice President of BAM in the same year. In 1972 he was appointed President of the Federal Agency, which he held until his retirement in 1992.

In 1970 the Technical University of Berlin appointed him honorary professor for the field of "Physics and Technology of Polymeric Materials".

Becker had been an honorary member of the Association of German Engineers since 1995 , which also awarded him the Grashof Memorial Medal in 2000 . He found his final resting place in the Berlin cemetery Zehlendorf (field 006-157).

literature

• Professor Dr. Gerhard Wilhelm Becker . Short portrait on the occasion of the 80th birthday. In: VDI Berlin-Brandenburg (Ed.): Mensch & Technik . No. IV / 2007 , p. 17 .
• G. Laalej: Mourning for Gerhard Wilhelm Becker . In: VDI news . February 17, 2012, ISSN  0042-1758 , p. 23 .