Hans Elsässer

Hans Friedrich Elsässer (born March 29, 1929 in Aalen ; † June 10, 2003 in Heidelberg ) was a German astronomer and founding director of the Max Planck Institute.

Life

Elsässer studied astronomy , physics and mathematics at the University of Tübingen from 1948 to 1953 , where he received his doctorate in 1953 and his habilitation in 1959. From 1953 to 1955 he worked at the research facility on the Swiss Jungfraujoch and at the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein in South Africa . From 1955 to 1956 Elsässer was on sight expeditions of the ESO in South Africa. He then worked as a research assistant, first in Tübingen, then at the university observatory in Göttingen . In 1962 he became a full professor for astronomy at the University of Heidelberg . He was also head of the State Observatory in Heidelberg-Königstuhl until 1975 .

In 1962 he founded the magazine Sterne und Weltraum together with Karl Schaifers and Rudolf Kühn and remained co-editor until his death.

In the 1960s, telescopes were in short supply in Germany . Elsässer worked intensively to reduce this deficiency. In 1968 Elsässer was founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, after having been in contact with the Max Planck Society since 1964 . Elsässer remained Managing Director of the MPI until 1994. In 1997 he retired. In 1983 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars' Academy . Since 1972 he has been a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

Elsässer carried out various rocket and balloon experiments that were necessary for the successful implementation of the Helios A and B and Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) projects . He also worked on the topics of interstellar matter , star formation , active galaxies and large-scale structures in the cosmos .

In recognition of his achievements, the asteroid (4385) Alsatian was named after him.

Jakob Staude: Hans Elsässer, March 29, 1929-10 June 2003. Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg , in: Yearbook of the Max Planck Society 2004, pp. 111–112, self-published by the MPG, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-927579-18-1 . (Obituary for Alsatian)