Reimar Lüst

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Reimar Lüst (born March 25, 1923 in Barmen ; † March 31, 2020 ) was a German astrophysicist and science manager . From 1984 to 1990 he was Director General of ESA .

origin

Reimar Lüst was born in Barmen as the second child of the couple Hero Lüst (1885–1945) and Grete Strunck (1898–1998). The parents had married in March 1920, a daughter was born in 1921, three years after Reimar's birth another son was born, and then another daughter in Kassel. Hero Lüst headed the YMCA secretary school at the Barmer Johanneum from 1920 , Grete Lüst acted as housemother there. In 1926 the school was relocated to Kassel so that the family had to move. Hero Lüst, born in Esens , came from an East Frisian captain's family and learned the trade of a businessman; after a revival experience , he began training at the Johanneum Evangelist School in Barmen. Grete Strunck, born in Brussels , came from a medium-sized business family that had its roots in Dortmund and Carthausen in Westphalia .

Life

From 1929 Lüst attended a private elementary school in Wilhelmshöhe , which was close to Quakerism . After its dissolution in 1931, he switched to a municipal elementary school. From 1933 to 1941 Lüst first attended the Wilhelmsgymnasium and then the Humanist Gymnasium in Kassel , where he graduated from high school in 1941. He then did military service in the Navy from 1941 to 1943 ; There he was most recently chief engineer on the submarine U 528 , which he barely survived the sinking. From 1943 to 1946 he was a prisoner of war in the USA ( Mexia , Texas) and in England.

After his release, Lüst studied physics at the University of Frankfurt am Main from 1946 to 1949 . He received his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1951 under Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen, headed by Werner Heisenberg . From 1955 to 1956 Lüst studied on a Fulbright scholarship at the Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chicago and at Princeton University . In 1959 he completed his habilitation in physics at the University of Munich .

Lüst was visiting professor of mathematics at New York University (1959) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1961) and of aeronautics and astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology (1962). In 1960 he was a scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics. Due to his research in the field of astrophysics , he worked from 1962 to 1964 at the beginning of the space age as technical director at the ESA predecessor organization ESRO , of which he was vice president from 1968 to 1970. Between 1963 and 1972 Lüst was founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics .

In 1964 he was an associate professor at the University of Munich and in 1965 an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich . From 1969 to 1972 he was Chairman of the Science Council and from 1972 to 1984 President of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. V. Between 1984 and 1990 Lüst was Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA). From 1985 to 1986 he was President of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors , GDNÄ. From 1989 to 1999 he was President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation . From 1992 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg .

Lüst was one of the idea providers and was chairman of the planning committee for the establishment of the International University Bremen and most recently chairman of its supervisory board. Due to the combination of research and membership in numerous scientific organizations on the one hand and participation in supervisory boards of companies in the space sector on the other hand, he was often referred to as a science manager.

Lüst was married to the journalist Nina Grunenberg-Lüst from 1986 until her death . From the first marriage with the physicist Dr. Rhea Lüst (April 6, 1921 - November 12, 1993) had sons Dieter (* 1956) and Martin (* 1959).

Memberships

Memberships in other institutions

Memberships in business

  • Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ERNO GmbH, Bremen (1976–1984)
  • Member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Aerospace AG Munich (1990–1993)
  • Member of the Supervisory Board of Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG / DaimlerChrysler AeroSpace AG Munich (1998)

honors and awards

Honorary citizenships

Honorary memberships

Further honors

Publications

  • Hydrodynamics . Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 1978, ISBN 3-411-01540-3 .
  • Artificial clouds - a means of space research in: Yearbook of the Max Planck Society . 1968, pp. 150-172

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sovereign Helmsman of Science , obituary of the Max Planck Society, March 31, 2020
  2. ^ Obituary in Der Spiegel , No. 15, April 4, 2020, p. 125
  3. ^ Obituary notice from the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen for Reimar Lüst. In: Die Zeit , No. 16 of April 8, 2020, p. 32.
  4. ↑ Member History: Reimar Lüst. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 29, 2018 (with biographical notes).
  5. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Reimar Lüst (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 43, March 9, 1973.
  7. ↑ Susanne Mellinghoff: The promotion of young scientists in the Max Planck Society. (PDF) In: Contributions to university research. Volume 25, Issue 2, 2003, p. 86.
  8. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. (PDF) State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
  9. ^ Senate press office Bremen
personal data
SURNAME Lüst, Reimar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astrophysicist and science manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Barmen
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 2020