ht. J. Hear Mass Tran.@r.
Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 269-270,
Pergamon Press pk. Printed in Great Britain

1992

Professor Erich W. P. Hahne
on his 60th birthday

PROFESSOR
Erich Wilhelm Perikles Hahne celebrates
his 60th birthday this year. On this occasion, we wish
to applaud his contributions to the field of heat transfer and express our felicitations.
Professor Hahne was born on 2 February 1932 in
Athens, Greece, but raised near Munich in Southern
Germany. He received his D@Zom-Zngenieur degree inmechanical engineering from the Technical Universityof Munich, where he finished his Diploma thesis in1958 under Professor Schmidt’s guidance. This was
the beginning of an almost 15 year period of research
work at the well-known Thermodynamic Institute in
Munich-in
the early years as an assistant to Professor E. Schmidt and later to Professor U. Grigulland ending as an academic director.
In 1964 he received his doctorate for the thesis
entitled “Heat Transfer by Natural Convection in
Fluids Near their Thermodynamic Critical Point”.
After that he took a one year’s leave of absence to stayat CalTech in Pasadena, U.S.A., offered by the NASA
fellowship and research program “Heat Transfer
Near the Critical State”.
In 1973 he became a full professor at the Universityof Stuttgart and since that time has held the chair of
the Institut fur Thermodynamik und Warmetechnik.
Professor Hahne’s research activities are mainly inthe areas of phase change heat transfer with special
emphasis on the critical point, thermophysical properties, solar thermal energy utilization and heatstorage. So far, he has authored and co-authored142 journal and conference papers in the abovefields.
Professor Hahne’s teaching activities include
courses such as : technical thermodynamics, heat andmass transfer, heat exchanger design, optimizedenergy conversion and solar energy technology.
He is a very active member of the international
heat transfer community. He was among the founding
members of the International Centre for Heat andMass Transfer-since
1968 as the German representative, later as a member of the ScientificCouncil, and between 1978 and 1981 as the chairmanof the Executive Committee. In 1988 he obtained the20th Anniversary ICHMT Award in recognition of
his role in the founding of the ICHMT and his contribution to its successful activities.
Presently, he is the German delegate in the
Assembly for the International Heat Transfer Conferences. He served these conferences as a secretary(Paris, 1970), as an editor (1982), as a keynote speaker(1986), and since 1986 as a member of the International Scientific Committee.
Professor Hahne is an editor or co-editor of many
journals: International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer (since 1966), International Communications
in Heat and Mass Transfer, Previews of Heat andMass Transfer and Numerical Heat Transfer (1974),
International Journal of Solar Energy (1982), andJournal of Solar Energy ( 1987).

In his Institute, Professor Hahne hosted many visit269

210U. GROWSef al.

ing scientists from all over the world. He spends muchof his time in organizing scientific contacts+speciallybetween his and quite a number of Chinese universities, where he repeatedly stayed as a teacher andadvisor. In 1983 he became an Honorary Professor at
the Shanghai Institue of Mechanical Engineering.
Although very busy with teaching, research andmany international activities, Professor Hahne is a
devoted husband and father of three daughters. His
family takes part in his scientific life-at home, where
many such guests from abroad have been hosted, andtravelling with him between Turkey and China, andthe United States and Soviet Union.
On behalf of Professor Hahne’s students, colleagues
and friends all around the globe, we wish him a very
happy birthday and many more productive years.
U. GROSS
J. SOHNS
N. FISCH
J. P. HARTNETT
W. J. MINKOWYCZ