Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2000

Obituary for Professor Heinz Maecker We are deeply saddened to inform the Plasma Chemistry Community of the death of Professor Heinz Maecker who passed away on April 4, 1999, a few days before his 86th birthday. Professor Maecker studied physics at the universities of Rostock, Munich, and Kiel in Germany and he graduated in 1938 with a doctoral thesis on ‘‘The continuous spectrum of carbon arcs.’’ During the war (from 1941 to 1945) he worked as research associate at the Technical Academy of the German Air Force in Berlin-Gatow on the propagation of shock waves in liquids and gases. In 1945 he returned to academia working at the University of Kiel on the generation and diagnostics of high temperature arc plasmas and he and his co-workers have been the first to reach record temperatures for that time (exceeding 50,000 K) in DC, steady arcs, using water-vortex stabilization. In 1951 he joined the Division of Plasma Physics of the SiemensSchuckert Research Laboratories in Erlangen, Germany and in 1961 he accepted an offer for the famous chair of Electro-Physics at the University of Munich. Both his industrial as well as his academic career (the latter ended with his retirement in 1979) have been characterized by exceptional discoveries and achievements which are recognized today as milestones in arc physics. These milestones had and still have a profound impact on our understanding of the physics of electric arcs. The wall-stabilized, cascaded arc, first introduced by Maecker, became the primary research tool in research laboratories all over the world for measuring thermodynamic and transport properties of plasmas at elevated temperatures and for measuring of transition probabilities of many spectral lines. His pioneering work in the field of transport coefficients included the extremely difficult problem of radiation transport in thermal plasmas. Among many other contributions to arc physics, which cannot be listed here because of space limitations, Professor Maecker discovered the pumping action, induced by the interaction of the selfmagnetic field with the electric current in high intensity arcs. This effect, which is particularly important in the vicinity of arc electrodes producing the so-called electrode jets is known today as the ‘‘Maecker effect.’’ In addition to his outstanding accomplishments in arc physics, Professor Maecker has been also active in the chemistry of arc plasmas. His 277 0272-4324y00y0600-0277$18.00y0  2000 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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Obituary for Professor Heinz Maecker

work on chemical reactions in plasmas and the associated de-mixing effect attracted world-wide attention. Besides his seminal contributions to arc physics and chemistry, Professor Maecker educated in his institute a generation of plasma physicists which hold today leading positions in academia as well as in industry. His impact on arc physics over the past 50 years has been unsurpassed and many of his findings became the cornerstones for further research and industrial developments. Those of you who have had the privilege of knowing him personally, will remember his sharp intellect paired with kindness and social grace. E. Pfender Stan Vepr˘ek