Goetz Oertel

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Goetz Oertel (born August 24, 1934 in Stuhm , West Prussia ) is a German-American physicist and science manager in the USA .

youth

In January 1945 Oertel fled with his parents, the mill director Egon Oertel and his wife Margarete geb. Wittek, to the west, first to Gransee in Brandenburg , then to Triptis in Thuringia , where not the Red Army but American troops marched in. When Thuringia was handed over to the Soviets as a result of the Potsdam Agreement , it went on for the third time, again by horse and carriage, to Öhringen in Württemberg . The father supported the family with his hobby horse, genealogy .

After graduating from the Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium in Heilbronn and an industrial internship at the AEG in Stuttgart , Oertel began to study physics at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel in the summer semester of 1953 . As the son of a Masurian , he became active in the Corps Palaiomarchia-Masovia in 1954. He fought four lengths and distinguished himself as a senior . He later recorded the tapes of the Corps Masovia and Palaiomarchia .

Physicist in the USA

With a Fulbright scholarship , he followed his doctoral supervisor to the USA in September 1957 . He received an assistantship in physics from the University of Maryland . In 1960 he married Brigitte Beckmann. He became a neighbor and friend of Karl-Ludwig Stellmacher .

After graduation ( Ph.D. ) who introduced him to NASA in January 1963 in its Langley Research Center as a researcher and sat his naturalization through and over him the conduct of an ongoing project. The engineers at NASA and General Electric had to be convinced by him that the project was not feasible and had to be fundamentally restructured. The experimental results of the dissertation were published and resulted in two patent applications .

Solar physics

In 1967 the NASA headquarters offered him a managerial position in Washington, DC , and enabled him to continue his theoretical work. When he was appointed program director of the “ATM” on Skylab , entrusted with more and more functions and finally made Chief of Solar Physics , the experimental work had to be terminated (with success).

Nuclear energy

In 1974, the Nixon government first announced a nationwide Federal Executive Development Program that was intended to break the isolation of federal ministries, especially among senior officials ( super-grades ). What was required was more “management” than pure expertise. Around 8,000 “middle” civil servants applied for 25 positions. Oertel was accepted and had "free choice" among the ministries. After the introductory course in Charlottesville ( South Carolina ), he was a six-month science advisor to the President and in the Office of Management and Budget - Department of Space, Science and Energy - in the Presidential Office. In 1975 he became head of the astronomy program in the Ministry of Science, in 1976 chief of staff of the Assistant Administrator for Nuclear Energy (ERDA) and from 1977 to 1984 director of nuclear energy facilities (including nuclear by-products and defense waste) in the new Ministry of Energy. Relocations to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Albuquerque placed responsibility for 32,000 employees and a budget of $ 3 billion.

astronomy

He returned to the Department of Energy in 1985 as Deputy Assistant Secretary . Faced with the consequences of the Challenger disaster and the Chernobyl disaster , his appointment as President and Chief Executive of AURA was right for him. As a non-profit company, it operates the Hubble telescope , observatories and solar observatories in Arizona, New Mexico and Chile, and recently also the Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. After thirteen successful years, Oertel declined the offered five-year extension.

Others

Oertel and his wife have a daughter and a son. He is involved in the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC

Honors

Oertel continues to work for the National Academy of Sciences , for foundations and universities, for North and South American science ministries. The National Academies elected him Associate for life. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers awarded him the Dixy Lee Ray Prize. The International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after him: (5074) Goetzoertel .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 76/56
  2. ^ Goetz Oertel Retires as President of AURA
  3. ↑ CV Oertel (interview)
  4. ↑ Jürgen Herrlein , Amella Mai (ed.): Directory of all members of the Corps Masovia 1823 to 2005 . Potsdam 2006
personal data
SURNAME Oertel, Goetz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oertel, Goetz Kuno Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuhm , West Prussia