International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 45 (2002) 1789–1790
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Congratulations to Prof. Erich Hahne, on the occasion of his70th birthday

Prof. Erich Wilhelm Perikles Hahne has made outstanding contributions to the ﬁeld of heat transfer. For
those who know his vitality and activity it may come asa surprise that he celebrates his 70th birthday on 2February 2002.
Born on 2 February 1932, in Athens, Greece, Erich
Hahne grew up and studied in Munich, Germany. He
received his Diplom-Ingenieur degree in mechanicalengineering from the Technical University of Munich
in 1958, where he subsequently worked for almost 15
years in the well-known Thermodynamics Instituteinitially headed by Prof. E. Schmidt and then by Prof.
Grigull. In 1964, he was awarded the degree ofDr.-Ing. for a thesis on ‘‘Heat Transfer by Natural
Convection in Fluids Near their Thermodynamic
Critical Point’’.
Following a one-year NASA-funded research fellowship at CalTech in Pasadena, USA, in 1973 Dr.
Hahne was appointed as a full professor and director ofthe Institute for Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering in the University of Stuttgart.
Prof. Hahne’s research activities are mainly in theareas of phase change heat transfer, thermophysicalproperties, solar thermal energy utilisation and heatstorage. To date, he has authored and co-authored 350
journal and conference papers. Being a dedicated teacher he has taught a wide range of undergraduate andpostgraduate courses such as: technical thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, heat exchanger design, optimised energy conversion and solar energy
PII: S 0 0 1 7 - 9 3 1 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 0 - 8technology. His textbook ‘Technische Thermodynamik’is now in its 3rd edition.
Erich Hahne is well known as a very active memberof the international heat transfer community. Being oneof the founding members of the International Centre for
Heat and Mass Transfer (since 1968 as German representative, later as a member of the Scientiﬁc Council,
and between 1978 and 1981 as chairman of the Executive Committee), he was the recipient of the 20th Anniversary ICHMT Award in 1988. Presently, he is theGerman delegate in the Assembly for the International
Heat Transfer Conferences, which he has served in many
responsible positions, such as the organisation of theforthcoming International Heat Transfer Conference inGrenoble. Prof. Hahne is an editor or co-editor of important international journals, including the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (since 1966)
and the Journal of Solar Energy (1987).
Accepting and enjoying the internationality of his
profession, Prof. Hahne has hosted many visiting scientists from all over the world. As the University ofStuttgart liaison oﬃcer for Chinese universities, he visited this country several times and became an Honorary
Professor at the Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 1983.
In his private life, Erich Hahne is a devoted husband,father and grandfather, and an accomplished sportsman(tennis and skiing).
In April 2000, Prof. Hahne retired from his chair in
the University of Stuttgart. However, not to anybody’s

H. Müller-Steinhagen et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 45 (2002) 1789–1790

surprise, his is not a restful retirement. He has maintained his oﬃce in the Institute for Thermodynamics
and Thermal Engineering where he continues with manyof his former activities, including the supervision of
doctoral students, the editorship of journals and theorganisation of conferences such as the 2001 International Heat Transfer Conference in Grenoble, France.

1790

On behalf of his many students, colleagues andfriends all around the world, we wish him many moreproductive years.
Hans Müller-Steinhagen
E-mail: HMS@itw.uni–stuttgart.deW.J. Minkowycz
James P. Hartnett
John W. Rose