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Reimar Lüst (; 25 March 1923 – 31 March 2020) was a German astrophysicist. He worked in European space science from its beginning, as the scientific director of the
European Space Research Organisation The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a ...
(ESRO) from 1962 and as Director General of the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA) from 1984 until 1990. Lüst taught internationally and influenced German politics as chairman of the Wissenschaftsrat from 1969 to 1972. He was the president of the German
Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...
from 1972 to 1984. As chairman of the board of Jacobs University Bremen, he shaped the international school towards excellence. His awards include Officer of the Légion d’Honneur and the Grand Cross of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...
.


Life

Lüst was born on 25 March 1923 in
Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...
(now part of
Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...
) in
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
. At age 10, he attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
, but his education was interrupted in 1941 by military service with the German Navy (''
Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...
'') during World War II. In the navy, he served as a lieutenant engineer on U-528. He survived her sinking and was a prisoner-of-war in England and the U.S. from 1943 to 1946. He began studies while imprisoned. After being released, Lüst returned to his education in 1946. He received his B.S. in physics from the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1949 and his doctorate from the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...
in 1951, supervised by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. He was an assistant at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen from 1951. He was selected as a Fulbright Fellow at the
Enrico Fermi Institute __NOTOC__ The Institute for Nuclear Studies was founded September 1945 as part of the University of Chicago with Samuel King Allison as director. On November 20, 1955, it was renamed The Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies. The name was ...
of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, and at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1955/56. He was a professor at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT), and the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
(Caltech) in Pasadena. He is credited with contributions on the "origins of the planetary system, solar physics, the physics of cosmic rays, plasma physics, hydrodynamics and to the physics of nuclear fusion". Lüst was interested in European space science from the beginning on the "Commission préparatoire européenne de recherches spatiales" (COPERS). He began as Secretary of the Scientific and Technical Working Group and became Scientific Director of the
European Space Research Organisation The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a ...
(ESRO) in 1962, where he influenced the scientific programme until 1964. He was its vice president from 1968 to 1970. Lüst was chairman of the Wissenschaftsrat, an advisory board for German national and state politics, from 1969 to 1972. For ESRO, he was involved in
sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...
launches and with satellites for studies of the
upper atmosphere Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes: * The mesosphere, which on Earth lies between th ...
and the planetary medium, directing experiments on the ESRO-IV, HEOS-A and COS-B satellites. Lüst was president of the German
Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...
from 1972 to 1984 and the third Director General of the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA) from 1984 until 1990. Afterwards, he served as president and later honorary president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, as a professor at the
University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
, and as chairman and, from 2005, honorary chairman of the board of the international Jacobs University Bremen. Lüst was married to Nina Grunenberg (1936–2017) and had two sons from his first marriage to Rhea Lüst. He died on 31 March 2020, days after his 97th birthday.


Awards

Lüst received the Austrian
Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921. The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...
in 1987. The planetoid 4836 was named "Lüst" after him. In 1995, he was awarded the Adenauer-de Gaulle Prize for French–German collaboration in 1994, and the Weizman Award in the Sciences and Humanities, from the
Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...
, in 1995. He was an Officer of the Légion d’Honneur and was awarded the Grand Cross of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...
. During the 10th anniversary celebrations of Jacobs University Bremen, he was awarded the university's first
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
for his outstanding achievements in space research as well as his successes as a science manager. The award further recognized Lüst's key role in the planning and development at the university as chairman of the planning committee. Lüst was pivotal in shaping the unique profile of Jacobs University, which was rated among the best universities in Germany by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) at the
Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent Foundation (nonprofit), foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. The foundati ...
.Top scores for Jacobs in CHE Ranking 2011
Jacobs University, 3 May 2011)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lust, Reimar German astrophysicists Scientists from Wuppertal 1923 births 2020 deaths Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany European Space Agency personnel Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich 20th-century German physicists German expatriates in the United States Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Max Planck Institute directors