Werner Gruber

Werner Gruber (November 2018)

Werner Gruber (born March 15, 1970 in Ostermiething ) is an Austrian physicist , author of popular science literature and cabaret artist .

Live and act

Life and scientific work

Werner Gruber grew up in Ansfelden , Upper Austria, and graduated in 1999 his Physics -Studies at the University of Vienna as a Master's from. He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Vienna. Since February 2013 Gruber has been heading the astronomical facilities of the Vienna Adult Education Center - the Vienna Planetarium , the Kuffner Observatory and the Urania Observatory . He teaches Introduction to Physics at the Medical Faculty of the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna .

After a performance on September 26, 2015, Gruber suffered a cardiac arrest, which he survived thanks to a prompt cardiac massage by his colleague Puntigam and a rapid rescue chain . He was then implanted with a pacemaker with defibrillator and internet connection. In October 2015, he said that being a "sudden death with brain" was very lucky. Gruber had previously tried to lose excess weight in order to reduce the resulting health risks. After completing a gastric bypass surgery , he had lost 50 kg by November 2015.

Werner Gruber is a member of the SPÖ , which he also supports in election campaigns.

Popular science work

Gruber became known for the popular science treatment of everyday physics in adult education courses in Vienna ("The Science of Star Trek ", "The Physics of Paper Airplane Construction ", "Culinary Physics"), in columns and at television appearances. With the theoretical physicist Heinz Oberhummer and the cabaret artist Martin Puntigam, he designed and presented the "science cabaret" Science Busters in the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna. In these events, science was presented in an entertaining way. The Science Busters also presented a weekly radio column on the youth radio station FM4 of the ORF . In February 2016 Gruber announced that he would be leaving the Science Busters due to the death of Heinz Oberhummer in November 2015 and for health reasons. In January he had already announced that he wanted to cut back.

In 2012 Gruber was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Popular Education . In 2013, the book Mind Reading by Stroking Snails (together with Martin Puntigam and Heinz Oberhummer ) was named Knowledge Book of the Year .

At the beginning of 2010 his demonstration of the ineffectiveness of the “ naked scanners ”, which are to be introduced in the security check at airports, on ZDF became known beyond the German-speaking countries . At the end of July 2015, Gruber denied in an interview with the Kurier a formative human influence on climate change . In another courier interview in 2017, he put this statement into perspective, saying to Global 2000 : “Yes, in any case we are the culprits. That climate change has nothing anthropogenic (= human) about it is nonsense! "

Together with Heinz Oberhummer , Gruber portrayed a Klingon in two promotional videos from the Vienna Adult Education Center from January 2015 . Klingon was spoken in both videos to illustrate the diversity of the VHS language offerings.

Fonts (selection)

Flirt with the stars . Ecowin, Elsbethen near Salzburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7110-0186-3 .
(with Heinz Oberhummer and Martin Puntigam ): The universe is a shitty area . Carl Hanser Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-446-44477-5 .
(with Heinz Oberhummer and Martin Puntigam): Mind reading by petting snails. What we can learn about physics from animals . Carl Hanser Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-43215-4 .
(with Heinz Oberhummer and Martin Puntigam): If you don't know anything, you have to believe everything. Ecowin Verlag , 2010.
(with Natascha Riahi and Christian Rupp): The little sun on a long journey . Bildungsverlag EINS , Troisdorf 2010.
The formula for enjoyment: Culinary Physics Ecowin Verlag , August 25, 2008. ISBN 978-3-902404-59-6
Incredibly easy. Just unbelievable. Physics for every day. Ecowin Verlag, Salzburg 2006. ISBN 978-3-902404-37-4 .
(with Natascha Riahi and Christian Rupp): The journey of the little sun. Bildungsverlag EINS, Troisdorf 2006, ISBN 978-3-427-50088-9 .
Hollywood and Physics , Facultas-Verlag, Vienna 2006.
(with Christian Rupp): very clear: physics 2 and very clear: physics 3 . Youth and People, Vienna 2005.
(with Christian Rupp): very clear: Physik 4 , Jugend und Volk, Vienna 2006.