International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 45 (2002) 2001–2002
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Professor Dr.-Ing.e.h. Ulrich Grigull
on his 90th birthday

Ulrich Grigull, Professor emeritus of the Technische
Universitaet Muenchen is one of the founding editors of
this journal.
He celebrates his birthday on 12 March. On seeing
and talking to him, one would never believe he his 90years. Deﬁnitely his wide range of interests and activities
keeps him young.
History has always occupied his interest: when hecame to Munich in 1961 as the successor of Ernst
Schmidt, he was so familiar with Bavarian history thatmany a native born Bavarian among his assistants had
diﬃculties keeping pace with him.
When he retired (in 1980) – then as President of theTechnische Universitaet – he was able to devote more of
his time to historical facts and here especially to the lives

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and accomplishments of men who formed our knowledge with their observations and inventions.
As a member of the ‘‘Bavarian Academy of Sciences’’(since 1975), he was entrusted with the chairmanship ofthe ‘‘Kepler Commission’’. This is a special group of theMathematical–Natural Science Section of the Academy.
Its intention is the issue of a new complete edition ofJohannes Kepler’s works in 21 volumes and an extra
register volume.
A tremendous proposition; it includes all papers
published during Kepler’s lifetime and shortly after(volume 1–12), all known letters from and to Kepler(volume 13–18) and ﬁnally manuscripts from the still notprinted scientiﬁc heritage of Kepler (volume 19–21). So
far 20 volumes were ﬁnished, under Grigull’s chair-2002E. Hahne, J.P. Hartnett / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 45 (2002) 2001–2002

menship three volumes were edited, only volume 21 and22 are to be prepared.
For a professor of Thermodynamics and Heat
Transfer it seems just natural that he combines his sciences with his historic interests: Grigull published anumber of papers on Isaac Newton e.g. ‘‘Newton’s
temperature scale and the law of cooling’’ or on Daniel
Gabriel Fahrenheit e.g. ‘‘Fahrenheit, a pioneer of exact
Thermometry’’.
Ulrich Grigull can look back on almost 70 years ofwork in heat Transfer. His initiative, both nationallyand internationally, made him one of the founders ofHeat Transfer as an original and separate discipline ineducation and research.
‘‘The science of Heat and Mass Transfer is of great
importance in many technical ﬁelds . . .’’ this he wrote in
the foreword to the ﬁrst issue of the Journal Waermeund Stoﬀuebertragung’’, which he founded together withE.Eckert and P. Grassmann (in 1968). And he continued: ‘‘. . . This might have been the reason that problems
in Heat and Mass Transfer are now studied in mostcivilized countries highly intensively and with considerable expense’’. He strongly advocated an International
Heat Transfer. This became manifested in an ‘‘International Heat Transfer Conference’’ every four years andan ‘‘International Assembly for Heat Transfer Conferences’’. This assembly can be joined by any nation ableand willing to run a Heat Transfer Conference. The 12thof these Conferences will be held this year in Grenoble,France.
Ulrich Grigull’s scientiﬁc accomplishments are documented in more than 120 papers and 40 books andbook contributions. These give proof of him as anoutstanding theorist and experimentalist.
As a teacher he led generations of students to anunderstanding of thermodynamics and heat and masstransfer.
Grigull’s famous book ‘‘Grundgesetze der Waermeund Stoﬀuebertragung’’ (The Basic Laws of Heat andMass Transfer) appeared in 1955. It was an extensively
revised version of a book by Groeber and Erk which had
ﬁrst appeared in 1921. Grigull’s book was the only one
in Heat and Mass Transfer written in German in thosedays. It experienced a number of editions and translations into Russian, English, Spanish and Japanese. Butwith other books written in German and with many newresults being available, Grigull felt that a completely newtreatment of the ﬁeld was overdue. He decided to havehis book edited in a number of monographs on thevarious subjects and written by young authors. In theyears from 1988 until 1993 nine volumes appeared on
the subjects of conduction, convection, condensation
and boiling, mass transfer, optical measuring techniques, radiation (three volumes) and thermal properties.
Quite often he experienced the responsibilities of aPresident: he was President of two International HeatTransfer Conferences of the International Assembly for
Heat Transfer Conferences, of the International Centerfor Heat and Mass Transfer, of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam, and he
was elected Rektor and President of the Technische
Universitaet Muenchen. This oﬃce he held for eight
years until his retirement.
He was associated with our journal from the very
beginning as a member of the board of editors, responsible for papers from German speaking countries
and countries close to Germany; then he became Cochairman of our Honorary Editorial Board.
Many honors and awards have been bestowed on
Ulrich Grigull. To name just a few: he is an honoary
Doctor of the University of Stuttgart, he was presented with the MAX JAKOB Memorial Award; andhe was honored by the State of Bavaria with the‘‘Order of Maximilian’’ the highest award for scientiﬁcmerits.
The colleagues and friends, the editors of this journal, former students and co-workers and the world-widecommunity of Heat Transfer submit their best wishes toProfessor Dr.-Ing.e.h. Ulrich Grigull.
Erich Hahne, J.P. Hartnett
Institut fur Thermodynamik und Warmetechnik
Universitat Stuttgrat, Pfaﬀenwaldring 6D-70550 Stuttgrat, Germany
E-mail address: hahne@itw.uni-stuttgart.de