International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 195 (2022) 123243

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

In Memoriam of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erich Hahne (02.02.1932 – 28.05.2022)

On 28 May 2022, Professor Dr.- Ing. Erich Hahne passed away
at the age of 90 years. He was editor of the International Journal ofHeat and Mass Transfer for nearly 50 years. He was a well-known
and very active member of the international heat transfer researchcommunity.
Erich Wilhelm Perikles Hahne was born on 2 February 1932
in Athens, Greece. Subsequently he grew up and studied inMunich. In 1958 he received the degree Dipl.-Ing. in MechanicalEngineering from the Technical University of Munich. In 1964 hewas awarded the degree Dr.-Ing. in mechanical engineering under the guidance of the heat transfer pioneers Profs. Ernst Schmidtand Ulrich Grigull. The title of his thesis was ‘‘Heat Transfer by
Natural Convection in Fluids Close to Their Thermodynamic Critical Point’’. He subsequently accepted a position in the Technical
University of Munich, rising to the position of ‘‘academic director’’.
During a NASA-funded research fellowship in 1964/1965 at CalTechin Pasadena, USA, Dr. Erich Hahne investigated the natural convection heat transfer through an enclosed horizontal layer of supercritical carbon dioxide.
He was appointed as a full professor and director of the Institute for Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering (ITW) at theUniversity of Stuttgart in 1973.
In April 20 0 0 he retired from his chair in the University ofStuttgart. He maintained his oﬃce at ITW and continued many of
his activities including the supervision of doctoral students, the editorship of journals and the organisation of conferences such as theEurotherm Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, 20 0 0, and Terrastock Conference in Stuttgart, Germany, 20 0 0.
For the University of Stuttgart, this appointment was a stroke ofluck as ITW ﬂourished under his leadership to develop into an internationally highly respect research centre for phase change heattransfer, heat storage and solar engineering. Pioneering investigations on central solar heating plants with seasonal storage and thefoundation of the Research and Testing Centre for Solar Systems
have ﬁrmly established the institute in the forefront of solar research.
Being one of the founding members of the International Centrefor Heat and Mass Transfer (since 1968 as German representative,
later as a member of the Scientiﬁc Council, and between 1978 and1981 as chairman of the Executive Committee), he was the recipient of the 20th Anniversary ICHMT Award in 1988. He was one of
the German delegates in the Assembly for the International Heat

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0017-9310(22)00713-X
0017-9310

Transfer Conferences which he served in many responsible positions.

He was an editor or co-editor of important international journals, including the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,
the International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, thePreviews in Heat and Mass Transfer, the Numerical Heat Transfer,
the International Journal of Transport Phenomena and the Journalof Solar Energy. He hosted many visiting scientists from all overthe world. As the University of Stuttgart liaison oﬃcer for Chinese
universities, he visited China several times and became an Honorary Professor at the Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineeringin 1983.
Over the years, he made outstanding contributions to a wide
range of topics in the thermal sciences, ranging from thermophysical properties, boiling and condensation heat transfer, thermal energy storage to solar engineering. Professor Hahne authored andco-authored close to 400 papers published in international journals and on conferences.

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 195 (2022) 123243

Erich Hahne also was a co-author together with U. Grigull of thebooks “Progress in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 1, 1969, and Heat
Transfer in Boiling, 1977. He was also one of the authors of theProceedings of the 4th and 7th International Heat Transfer Conference in Paris Versailles, France, 1970 and Munich, Germany, 1982,
respectively.
Prof. Hahne was a dedicated teacher and taught a wide range ofundergraduate and postgraduate courses such as: technical thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, heat exchanger design, optimised energy conversion, and solar energy technology. His textbook “Technische Thermodynamik”, published in the 5th edition, isstill highly accepted and well used by today’s students. He was thedoctor father of about 50 Ph.D. researchers during his 40 years ofscientiﬁc activity at the University of Stuttgart.
We all will remember Professor Erich Hahne and his comprehensive work in best memory.
Klaus Spindler, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Ulrich Gross, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg,
Germany
Bernhard Weigand, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Tianshou Zhao (editor-in-chief), Hong Kong University ofScience and Technology2