Prof. Dr. Gerhard Haerendel
space plasma physics
Main Focus
Prof. Haerendel has more
than 50 years of experience in space research, including the function of P.I.
of several international rocket and satellite projects such as PORCUPINE, Coloured
Bubbles, AMPTE, CRRES, FREJA, and EQUATOR-S and as Co.I. on two instruments of
the Rosetta mission. The sounding rocket work pioneered the application of the
barium plasma cloud technique to various aspects of plasma and magnetospheric
physics, e.g. theory and producing equatorial spread F, confirmation of auroral acceleration and Alfven’s critical
ionization velocity effect, culminating in the creation of artificial comets in
1984 and 1985. He has published more than 300 papers in scientific journals.
Curriculum Vitae
Born in 1935, he received his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Physics from the University of Munich in 1963. In 1969 he became Fellow (Wissenschaftliches Mitglied) of the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik and in 1972 Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), from which he retired at the end of 2000. From 1994 to 2002 he was COSPAR president; from September 2000 - September 2005 he has been Vice President and Founding Dean of the School of Engineering and Science at International University Bremen (now Jacobs University). In October 2018 he received the honorary doctorate in physics of the University of Crete.
For his full CV, please see the link in the left-hand column.