Editorial in memory of Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Deckwe

A. Schumpe

A. Zeng

I. Butula

M. Popovic

Z. Kurtanjek

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In memoriamProf. Dr. WOLF-DIETER DECKWERAugust 3, 1941 – October 4, 2006A year has passed since we heard shocking newsthat Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Deckwer suddenly diedshortly after his 65-th birthday celebration and retire-ment as Professor for Biochemical Engineering at theTechnical University of Braunschweig, Germany. Weare very proud that we can saythat Prof. Deckwer was one ofthe strongest supporters ofChemical and Biochemical Engi-neering Quarterly journal andwas a member of its ScientificAdvisory Board from its foun-dation in 1986 onwards untilhis death. Through his pro-fessional and scientific life hewas one of the world’s mostproductive scientists in chemi-cal and biochemical engineer-ing with more than 490 publi-cations covering and mergingclassical chemical engineeringresearch with biochemical en-gineering and systems biology.In 2001 he received a veryprestigious Erwin-Schrödinger--Award of the Helmholtz-So-ciety for “A new technology for mercury remediation”.He was not only a very fruitful scientists but also ex-ceptionally respected teacher and mentor who “pro-duced” world wide a whole class of modern universityprofessors and scientists in the field of chemical andbiochemical engineering.With this special issue we want to honor Prof. Dr.Wolf-Dieter Deckwer for his great scientific contribu-tions and sincere friendship. We all will miss him verymuch, but he will continue to live in our hearts andour future publications.Prof. Dr. elimir KurtanjekEditorWe met in 1959 while working in an industriallaboratory in Mannheim, in the western part of still di-vided Germany. He came from former GDR, while Icame from former Yugoslavia; he had just started thesame path in education (chemistry technician, a work-ing high-school graduate, studies), I had just gained mydiploma from the Faculty of Technology in Zagreb.I taught him the application of synthetic methodsin organic chemistry, while he, a nine-year younger,mature and strong personality, became my Germanteacher and a dear friend. Although we later went ourseparate ways – he went to study in Berlin, I went formy doctor’s degree in Heidel-berg – we remained closelyconnected. Several times, wespent our summer holidays to-gether on the Croatian coast,where he, as a university pro-fessor, became an indispens-able lecturer at chemical andbiochemical engineering semi-nars organized by the CroatianSociety of Chemical Engineer-ing and Slovenian Society ofChemical Engineering.As I came to realize,thanks to you, the importanceof those engineering disci-plines, I participated in thefounding of the joint journal ofchemical and biochemical en-gineers from Graz, Ljubljana,Trieste and Zagreb, and for thefirst 15 years I assumed duty as publisher of the newjournal Chemical and Biochemical EngineeringQuaterly (CABEQ), with you as author, consulting edi-tor, and a member of the Advisory Board. Your profes-sionalism, decent approach, and your unique charmgained you many friends and admirers in these regionsof south Central Europe. You never forgot your old, re-tired friend. In the fall of 2005, when you “poppedover” from a symposium in Ljubljana to my secondresidence in a little Istrian village 150 miles away onlyto spend a few evening hours together, we neversensed that it would be our last reunion. You did notsuccumb to your long-lasting chronic disease; deathcame suddenly with the eternal question: Why did ithave to be you? “Alte Kroaten” would say: “Becausethe good ones always go first.”Thank you, Wolf Dieter, for everything. I thankyou on behalf of everyone that knew you. Thank youfor your friendship.Prof. Dr. Ivan ButulaIn memoriam, Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 21 (4) III–IV (2007) IIIWolf-Dieter Deckwer studied Chemistry andChemical Engineering at the Technical University ofBerlin. He received the Dr. rer. nat. at the Institute ofTechnical Chemistry of the TU Berlin in 1973 andonly two years later he gained his habilitation. Duringhis “Berlin years” as a Ph.D. student, academic assis-tant and post doctoral fellow he published thirty pa-pers, mainly on modelling of bubble column reactors(18 papers) and on absorption of isobutene insulphuric acid (11 papers).For modelling and dimensioning of bubble col-umn reactors, Wolf studied the effects of reactor ge-ometry, physical and chemical properties of the gasand liquid phases, reaction rate constant, order ofchemical reaction, and adjustable operating parame-ters (superficial gas and liquid velocity, concurrent orcounter-current flow of gas and liquid phases, temper-ature etc.) on the non-adjustable parameters (gashold-up, bubble size distribution, gas and liquid phaseback-mixing, volumetric mass transfer coefficient, spe-cific interfacial area, heat transfer coefficient).The systematic investigation of the acid-catalyzedisobutene hydration started with solubility measure-ments and absorption studies in the stirred cell (flat in-terface) to evaluate the reaction rate constants in awide range of the sulphuric acid concentration. Theresults were tested in a small bubble column and ap-plied for determination of optimal process conditionsin columns up to 7 m height.In 1976 Wolf became Associate Professor forTechnical Chemistry (C3) at the University ofHannover. In the Institute of Technical Chemistry,headed by Professor Schügerl, Wolf continued re-search on multiphase reactors, specifically: gas solubili-ties in microbial culture media; effective interfacialarea in dispersions: liquid-side mass and heat transfercoefficients in bubble columns, three-phase fluidizedbeds, and stirred tanks; immobilized enzymes; chlori-nation of toluene and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis inslurry reactors. One of the more exotic subjects wasde-nitration of aqueous waste solutions from nuclearfuel processing. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Pitts-burgh Energy Technology Center (PETC-DOE) in 1980and a Guest Professor at the Chemical and PetroleumEngineering Department of the University of Pittsburghin 1981.Wolf accepted the Chair of Technical Chemistry(C4) at the University of Oldenburg in 1981. Aftersome years in a former dairy, his group moved intobeautiful new buildings. New facilities enabled experi-mental studies on Fischer-Tropsch and methanol syn-thesis in slurry reactors. Also the fundamental studiesin three-phase fluidized beds, viscous polymer solu-tions and organic liquids in bubble columns were con-tinued. This work culminated in the publication of thebook “Reaktionstechnik in Blasensäulen” in 1985; laterthe book became available also in English language(“Bubble Column Reactors”). Wolf had become wellknown as a researcher and had many internationalcontacts, e.g. he had hosted several Humboldt fellows(E. Alper, Turkey; K.D.P. Nigam, India; S. Ledakowicz,Poland; A. Zaidi, Morocco). He was also an excellentteacher and his lectures attracted many students.However, instead of settling in this position, he wasstill open to new challenges.In 1986 Wolf became head of the Division ofBiochemical Engineering of the GBF (National Re-search Institute for Biotechnology). Research was car-ried out in integrated bioprocess development, meta-bolic engineering of microbial and animal cell cultures,environmental biotechnology and chemicals from re-newable resources (“white biotechnology”) whichtopic receives much attention nowadays. Wolf empha-sized always the application of (chemical) engineeringprinciples to biological processes, especially the quan-titative, model-based and systematic approacheswhich are important components of what is nowknown as systems biology. He was among the fewleading biochemical engineers who realized the im-portance of considering the cell itself as a bioreactorand pushed studies in this direction in the early1990’s.Wolf-Dieter Deckwer was always open to newtechnological developments and had a broad over-view. At the turn of the century he realized the impor-tance of bioinformatics and functional genomics forbioprocess analysis and development. As a Professor ofBiochemical Engineering at the Braunschweig Univer-sity of Technology, free of the many administrative du-ties at GBF, he set out with a dedicated researchgroup to establish tools to study proteome andfluxome of bioprocesses and cooperate with bioinfor-maticians to work with genome sequence and func-tional genomic data. He also strongly propelled the in-tegration of systems biology into bioprocess develop-ment. Wolf-Dieter Deckwer was one of the major ini-tiators of the DFG (German Research Foundation) spe-cial research program “From gene to products” at theBraunschweig University of Technology. In this specialresearch programme his group applied systems biologyto Bacillus megaterium for the production of recombi-nant proteins.With a publication list of more than 400 peer-re-viewed scientific papers, Wolf-Dieter Deckwer was avery fruitful scientist. As a mentor he had a very sharpscientific judgement but gave his students and associ-ates enough free room to develop their own ideas.Many of his students from all over the world followedhis invitation to celebrate his 65th birthday and the re-tirement. All too soon after this joyful get-together,Wolf-Dieter Deckwer died unexpectedly on October4, 2006. His students and co-workers share the warmfeeling of his remembrance.IV In memoriam, Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 21 (4) III–IV (2007)Prof. Dr. M. Popoviæ, Prof. Dr. A. Schumpe,Prof. Dr. A. Zeng

In memory of Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Deckwer

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