Peter Richter (physicist)

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Peter H. Richter (born November 13, 1945 in Fallingbostel ; † May 19, 2015 in Bremen ) was a German physicist. Until his retirement in 2011, he held a chair for theoretical physics at the University of Bremen .

biography

After graduating from high school in Osnabrück in 1964, Richter studied physics at the Georg-August University of Göttingen and the University of Birmingham until 1968 . He wrote his diploma thesis on the theory of superconductivity with Gerhart Lüders and obtained his doctorate on the theory of phase transitions with Siegfried Großmann in Marburg . He then worked as an assistant in Marburg and from 1973 to Manfred Eigen in Göttingen at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. From 1977 he did a research stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with John Ross and 1979/1980 at Stanford University , both times in the department of theoretical chemistry. In 1980 he became Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Bremen , where he was a member of the Institute for Dynamic Systems until 2002 and in particular worked with the mathematician Heinz-Otto Peitgen , and from 1992 to 2002 spokesman for the Graduate School Complex Dynamical Systems . 1985/1986 he was visiting professor at Boston University .

After starting out in solid-state physics, he has been concerned with the theory of evolution and biological and chemical dynamic systems (such as the immune system) and structure formation in biological systems , especially since his time at Eigen (who developed his hypercyclic theory of molecular biological evolution at that time). In the 1980s in Bremen, he mainly dealt with the theory of fractals , about the theory of which he wrote a book with Heinz-Otto Peitgen and organized conferences in Oberwolfach and at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics. In the 1990s he dealt with chaos theory and integrable systems z. B. in classical mechanics (top, celestial mechanics, elliptical billiards, multiple pendulums, etc.).

Richter was a liaison professor at the German National Academic Foundation and from 2002 to 2005 Vice President for Teaching and Studies at the University of Bremen. From 1990 to 1998 he was chairman of the Olbers Society for Amateur Astronomers in Bremen. From 1995 to 2000 he was on the board of the Wittheit scientific society in Bremen . He retired in 2011, and since 2012 he has been Wilhelm and Else Heraeus senior professor for the training of physics teaching students.

Richter had been married to Christiane Richter-Landsberg since 1971 and had two children.

Fonts

  • with Heinz-Otto Peitgen: The Beauty of Fractals. Images of complex dynamical systems. Springer, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-540-15851-0 .
  • (Ed.): Sun, Moon, Comets. Bremen and astronomy. On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Olbers Society. Hauschild, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-929902-84-2 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Judge, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richter, Peter H. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Fallingbostel
DATE OF DEATH 19th May 2015
Place of death Bremen