65 Notable alumni of
Darmstadt University of Technology
Updated:
The Darmstadt University of Technology is 773rd in the world, 275th in Europe, and 35th in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 65 notable alumni from the Darmstadt University of Technology sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Chaim Weizmann
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- Studied in 1892
- Occupations
- pedagoguechemistuniversity teacherpoliticianautobiographer
- Biography
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Chaim Azriel Weizmann was a Russian-born Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. He was elected on 16 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was instrumental in obtaining the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and convincing the United States government to recognize the newly formed State of Israel in 1948.
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Anne Spiegel
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Anne Spiegel is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. She served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 8 December 2021; she announced her resignation on 11 April and was dismissed by the President on 25 April 2022
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August Kekulé
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistpedagogue
- Biography
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Friedrich August Kekulé, later Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz, was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekulé was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially in the field of theoretical chemistry. He was the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure and in particular the Kekulé structure of benzene.
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El Lissitzky
- Occupations
- architectpaintervisual artistteacherdraftsperson
- Biography
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El Lissitzky, was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union.
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Oliver Zipse
- Occupations
- manager
- Biography
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Oliver Zipse is a German business executive who has been the chairman of the board of management (CEO) of BMW since 16 August 2019.
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Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky
- Occupations
- inventorphysicistengineer
- Biography
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Mikhail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky was a Russian-born engineer, electrician, and inventor of Polish-Russian origins, active in the German Empire and also in Switzerland.
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Hans Dieter Pötsch
- Occupations
- managerchief executive officerindustrial engineer
- Biography
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Hans Dieter Pötsch is an Austrian businessman, the chairman of the executive board of Porsche SE, and chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen since 2015, when he succeeded Ferdinand Piëch.
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Ines Geipel
- Occupations
- authorathleteGermanistwriteruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ines Geipel is a German academic and former athlete. She is professor of verse language at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch) in Berlin, where she teaches a course in contemporary puppetry.
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Peter Grünberg
- Occupations
- university teacherresearcherphysicistteacher
- Biography
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Peter Andreas Grünberg was a German physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his discovery with Albert Fert of giant magnetoresistance which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disk drives.
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Josef Ganz
- Occupations
- inventorjournalistengineer
- Biography
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Josef Ganz was a Jewish-German car designer born in Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Hungary).
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Egon Ramms
- Occupations
- career soldier
- Biography
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Egon Ramms is a retired German general who held numerous international commands. Ramms is a father of two.
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Fritz von Opel
- Occupations
- motorcycle racerengineerinventorracing automobile driver
- Biography
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Fritz Adam Hermann von Opel, known as Fritz Adam Hermann Opel until his father was ennobled in 1917, was the only son of Wilhelm von Opel and a grandson of Adam Opel, founder of the Opel company. He is remembered mostly for his Opel RAK demonstrations of the world's first manned rocket-powered ground and air vehicles that earned him the nickname "Rocket Fritz" and which were also highly effective as publicity stunts for his family's automotive business.
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Gerhard Herzberg
- Occupations
- university teacherastronomerphysicistchemist
- Biography
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Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, PC CC FRSC FRS was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Herzberg's main work concerned atomic and molecular spectroscopy. He is well known for using these techniques that determine the structures of diatomic and polyatomic molecules, including free radicals which are difficult to investigate in any other way, and for the chemical analysis of astronomical objects. Herzberg served as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada from 1973 to 1980.
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Fritz Schilgen
- Occupations
- engineerathletics competitor
- Biography
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Fritz Schilgen was a German athlete and the final torchbearer of the first Olympic torch relay at the 1936 Summer Games.
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Viola Priesemann
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Viola Priesemann is a German physicist and computational neuroscientist. One of her research priorities is to explore how the human brain organizes its neuronal capacities, to enable meaningful information processing.
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Paul Wallot
- Occupations
- university teacherarchitect
- Biography
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Johann Paul Wallot was a German architect of Huguenot descent, best known for designing the Reichstag building in Berlin, erected between 1884 and 1894. He also built the adjacent Palace of the President of the Reichstag, finished in 1904, and the former Saxon Ständehaus state diet building of 1906 at Brühl's Terrace in Dresden.
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Johann-Dietrich Wörner
- Occupations
- civil engineer
- Biography
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Johann-Dietrich "Jan" Wörner is a German civil engineer, university professor and former president of Technische Universität Darmstadt. He served as chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center DLR from 1 March 2007 to 30 June 2015. On 1 July 2015, he succeeded Jean-Jacques Dordain as Director General of the European Space Agency.
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Christoph Franz
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusinessperson
- Biography
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Christoph Franz is a German engineer and manager who served as chief executive officer of Lufthansa from 2011 until 2014.
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Wolfgang Bernhard
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Wolfgang Bernhard is a former member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG. He served as the former President and COO of Chrysler from 2000 to 2004.
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Wilhelm von Opel
- Occupations
- entrepreneurengineer
- Biography
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Wilhelm von Opel, known as Wilhelm Opel before being ennobled in 1917, was one of the founders of the German automobile manufacturer Opel. He introduced the assembly line to the German automobile industry.
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Ottmar Edenhofer
- Occupations
- university teachereconomist
- Biography
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Ottmar Georg Edenhofer is a German economist who is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on climate change policy, environmental and energy policy, and energy economics. His work has been heavily cited. Edenhofer currently holds the professorship of the Economics of Climate Change at Technische Universität Berlin. Together with Earth scientist Johan Rockström, economist Ottmar Edenhofer is scientific director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), representing the interdisciplinary and solutions-oriented approach of the institute. Furthermore, he is director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). From 2008 to 2015 he served as one of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III "Mitigation of Climate Change".
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Carl Adam Petri
- Occupations
- university teachermathematiciancomputer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Carl Adam Petri was a German mathematician and computer scientist.
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Carl Georg Ludwig Wilhelm Weyprecht
- Occupations
- entomologistnaval officerexplorermeteorologist
- Biography
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Karl Weyprecht, also spelt Carl Weyprecht, was an Austro-Hungarian explorer. He was an officer (k.u.k. Linienschiffsleutnant) in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. He is most famous as an Arctic explorer, and an advocate of international cooperation for scientific polar exploration. Although he did not live to see it occur, he is associated with the organisation of the first International Polar Year.
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Rasem Badran
- Occupations
- engineerarchitect
- Biography
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Rasem Jamal Badran is a Saudi Arabian/Jordanian architect of Palestinian descent whose works are based on a methodological approach in defining Architecture as a continuous dialogue between contemporary needs and historical inherited cultural values.
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Shervin Haghsheno
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- Studied in 1994-1999
- Occupations
- civil engineer
- Biography
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Shervin Haghsheno is a German civil engineer, economist and politician from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). He is a university professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and heads the Institute for Technology and Management in Construction as Managing Director. Since January 2024 he has been deputy chairman of the party Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht - Reason and Justice.
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Richard Kauffmann
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- In 1907 studied architecture
- Occupations
- urban plannerarchitect
- Biography
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Richard Kauffmann was a German-Jewish architect who migrated to Palestine in 1920. His architecture was influenced by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a proponent of the International Style, and was applied to the local landscape, laying the architectural groundwork for the nascent State of Israel and the White City, as Tel Aviv's International Style architecture became known.
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Paul Friedrich Wolfskehl
- Occupations
- mathematicianphysician
- Biography
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Paul Friedrich Wolfskehl, was a physician with an interest in mathematics. He bequeathed 100,000 marks (equivalent to €720,000 in 2023) to the first person to prove Fermat's Last Theorem.
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Matthias Kollatz
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- 1975-1981 studied physics
- Occupations
- engineereconomistpoliticiannon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Matthias Kollatz is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who served as State Minister of Finance in the government of Mayor Michael Müller of Berlin from 2014 to 2021.
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Yannis Milios
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- 1971-1976 graduated with Diplom in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teachereconomist
- Biography
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John Milios is a Greek social scientist and Marxian economics scholar. He is Professor of Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens. An author of several scholarly books, Milios is also director of the quarterly journal of economic theory Theseis.
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Bernd Sturmfels
- Occupations
- computer scientistmathematician
- Biography
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Bernd Sturmfels is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and is a director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig since 2017.
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Peter Gruss
- Occupations
- university teacherbiologist
- Biography
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Peter Gruss is a German developmental biologist, president of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, and the former president of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (having been elected for the term from 2002 to 2008 and reelected for 2008–2014).
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Salomon Korn
- Occupations
- writerarchitect
- Biography
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Salomon Korn is a German architect and an honorary senator of Heidelberg University. Since 1999 he has served as chairman of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main and since 2003 as vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
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Alfons Rissberger
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Alfons Rissberger is a German entrepreneur, business consultant, and writer.
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Franz-Josef Kemper
- Occupations
- university teacherathletics competitor
- Biography
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Franz-Josef Kemper is a German athlete, Olympian, and official. He achieved his greatest success as a middle-distance runner in the 1960s and 1970s.
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August Föppl
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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August Otto Föppl was a professor of Technical Mechanics and Graphical Statics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is credited with introducing the Föppl–Klammer theory and the Föppl–von Kármán equations (large deflection of elastic plates).
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Petra Fuhrmann
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Petra Fuhrmann was a German politician who was a member of the Landtag of Hesse for 20 years.
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Amardeo Sarma
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- Studied in 1980
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Amardeo Sarma is a qualified engineer for electrical and telecommunications engineering, chair of the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) and former chair of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations. Professionally, he works for NEC Laboratories Europe.
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Walter Haeussermann
- Occupations
- university teachermilitary flight engineerengineerscientist
- Biography
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Walter Haeussermann was a German-American aerospace engineer and member of the "von Braun rocket group", both at Peenemünde and later at Marshall Space Flight Center, where he was the director of the guidance and control laboratory. He was awarded the Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service in 1959 for his contributions to the US rocket program.
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Ulrich Eichhorn
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Ulrich Eichhorn is a German engineer, manager and car designer.
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Sigurd Hofmann
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Sigurd Hofmann was a German physicist known for his work on superheavy elements.
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Harald Rose
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacherscientist
- Biography
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Harald Rose is a German physicist. He is a laureate of the 2011 Wolf Prize in Physics and the 2020 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience for the development of aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy.
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Wolfgang Rösch
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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Wolfgang Rösch is a German Catholic priest. He was from 2010 to 2013 Dean of Wiesbaden at the parish St. Bonifatius. From 23 October 2013 he has been vicar general of the Diocese of Limburg, also administering the diocese during the absence of the bishop.
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Marian Lutosławski
- Occupations
- civil engineerelectrical engineer
- Biography
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Marian Lutosławski was a Polish mechanical engineer and inventor born during the foreign partitions of Poland. He studied at the Technical University in Riga, then also part of Russia, and obtained a diploma in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. Lutosławski installed the first power station in a residential neighbourhood in Warsaw, and introduced new techniques such as the three-phase current. In 1900 he built the country's first power plant fueled by a diesel internal combustion engine for Hotel Bristol, Warsaw. He also designed the first two reinforced concrete bridges in Lublin in 1908 and 1909. Lutosławski was arrested in 1918 by the Bolsheviks, and was executed without trial near Moscow as a "counterrevolutionary".
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Kurt Mahr
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writer
- Biography
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Kurt Mahr was a German author and one of the first authors of the series Perry-Rhodan, the largest Science fiction series of the world.
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Agha Ashurov
- Occupations
- engineerpolitician
- Biography
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Agha Ashurov was an Azerbaijani statesman who served as Minister of Industry and Trade and Minister of Postal Service and Telegraph of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and was member of Parliament of Azerbaijan.
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Friedrich Maximilian Hessemer
- Occupations
- writerpoetarchitect
- Biography
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Friedrich Maximilian Hessemer was a German architect and author.
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Michael Evenari
- Occupations
- university teacherbotanist
- Biography
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Michael Evenari was an Israeli botanist originally from Germany.
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Heinrich Müller-Breslau
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianengineercivil engineer
- Biography
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Heinrich Franz Bernhard Müller was a German civil engineer and high school teacher. He provided significant contributions to the theory of beams and frames in structural analysis.
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Gerhard Hennige
- Occupations
- athletics competitorsprinter
- Biography
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Gerhard Hennige is a retired German sprinter. He won a silver medal in the 400 m hurdles at the 1968 Olympics, setting a European record in the semifinals. He was also part of the 4 × 400 m West German teams that finished third at the 1968 Olympics and 1969 European Championships. In 1967 he won the European Cup in the 400 m hurdles, and in 1968 he was awarded the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt.
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Wilhelm Runge
- Occupations
- inventorphysicistengineer
- Biography
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Wilhelm Tolmé Runge was a German electrical engineer and physicist who had a major involvement in developing radar systems in Germany.
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Rudolf Goldschmidt
- Occupations
- inventoruniversity teacherengineer
- Biography
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Rudolf Goldschmidt was a German engineer and inventor, best known for the development of the Goldschmidt alternator radio transmitter, and the tone wheel receiver.
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Michael Meister
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- 1980-1985 studied mathematics
- Occupations
- mathematicianpolitician
- Biography
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Michael Günther Meister is a German mathematician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state Hesse since 1994. From 2018 until 2021 he also served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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Christoph Thiele
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Christoph Thiele is a German mathematician working in the field of harmonic analysis. After completing his undergraduate studies at TU Darmstadt and Bielefeld University, he obtained his Ph.D. in 1995 at Yale under the supervision of Ronald Coifman. After spending time at UCLA, where he was promoted to full professor, he occupied the Hausdorff Chair at the University of Bonn.
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Gerhard Weikum
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Gerhard Weikum is a German computer scientist and Research Director at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, where he is leading the databases and information systems department. His current research interests include transactional and distributed systems, self-tuning database systems, data and text integration, and the automatic construction of knowledge bases. He is one of the creators of the YAGO knowledge base. He is also the Dean of the International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science (IMPRS-CS).
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Elmar Lohk
- Occupations
- architecttennis player
- Biography
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Elmar Lohk was an Estonian architect and tennis player. Many of his buildings in Tallinn are now valued as great examples of 1930s architecture, for example, the prominent Scandic Hotel Palace on Freedom Square. His creation can be categorised as functionalism with some influence of Chicago school and traditional art.
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Thomas Gambke
- Enrolled in the Darmstadt University of Technology
- Studied physics
- Occupations
- entrepreneurmanagerpolitician
- Biography
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Thomas Gambke is a retired German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens, who was a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017, effectively winning a seat in the 15th, 16th and 17th election. A diploma physician, Gambke worked for the Schott AG and later as an independent entrepreneur, prior to entering politics.
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Wolfgang Händler
- Occupations
- computer scientistmathematician
- Biography
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Wolfgang Händler was a German mathematician, pioneering computer scientist and professor at Leibniz University Hannover (Lehrstuhl für elektronische Rechenanlagen) and University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (Institut für Mathematische Maschinen und Datenverarbeitung) known for his work on automata theory, parallel computing, artificial intelligence, man-machine interfaces and computer graphics.
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Dimitris Potiropoulos
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Dimitris Potiropoulos is a Greek architect, Chairman & Founding Partner of the architectural practice Potiropoulos+Partners. He was born in Athens, Greece to his parents Rigas Potiropoulos and Aliki Potiropoulou,. He studied Architecture at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany. During his studies he served as a faculty member at the Chair of Free Hand Drawing, and he was awarded with a special commendation for his project "Residential Proposal in the Historical Centre of Reutlingen". He specialized on Architectural Composition – Special issues of Building Design.
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Oliver Bimber
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Oliver Bimber is a German computer scientist. He is professor for computer graphics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria where he heads the Institute of Computer Graphics.
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Gustaf Wrede
- Occupations
- businesspersonindustrialistengineer
- Biography
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Gustaf Woldemar Wrede af Elimä was a Finnish Freiherr, engineer and businessman. He is best known for his contribution to Finnish tractor production.
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Karl Rohn
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Rohn was a German mathematician, who studied geometry.
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Peter von Halm
- Occupations
- graphic artistuniversity teacherprintmakerteacherpainter
- Biography
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Peter Ignaz Johann Halm, later Von Halm, was a German etcher who served as a professor of etching at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, from 1901 to 1923.
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Nils G. Walter
- Occupations
- university teacherchemist
- Biography
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Nils G. Walter, Dr. Ing., is the Francis S. Collins Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Biophysics, and Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research in the Nils Walter Lab focuses on non-coding RNA through the lens of single molecule techniques. He is the Founding Director of the Single Molecule Analysis in real-Time Center at Michigan. In addition, Walter is the Founding Co-Director for the University of Michigan Center for RNA Biomedicine whose mission is to enrich the university’s intellectual and training environment around RNA Biomedicine. He is currently an Associate Director for the Michigan Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP).
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Wolfgang Steinert
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Wolfgang Gerhard Herbert Steinert was a German electrical engineer.
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Henry J. Hefty
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Henry John Hefty was an immigrant from Switzerland who worked as an architect based in Portland, Oregon, United States.
