Prof. Dr. Peter Paufler

This issue contains a collection of papers dedicated to Prof. Dr. Peter Paufler on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The papers were written by colleagues and co-workers who have been collaborating with him in certain areas of solid state physics.

Peter Paufler was born in Dresden, on February 18th, 1940, where he also obtained his school-leaving exam. Between 1958 and 1963, he studied physics at the Dresden University of Technology. Inspired by Prof. Dr. Gustav E.R. Schulze, director of the Institute of X-ray Science and Metal Physics, he became interested in solid state physics, especially metal physics. The academic excellence and humanity of this university teacher left its mark on him. Both refused to compromise their personal integrity in the political system of the German Democratic Republic that often put loyalty to the party before scientific excellence. While Peter Paufler was working on his diploma, a very productive collaboration between the two scientists in the field of mechanical properties of intermetallic compounds began, which lasted for more than a decade. His doctorates Dr.rer.nat. and Dr.sc.nat. of 1967 and 1971, respectively, were based on the plasticity of the brittle intermetallic Laves phase MgZn₂. The time as assistant and senior assistant ended when he was appointed university lecturer at the TU Dresden in 1970.

In 1970, he spent a study visit at the C.E.N. Grenoble in the Départment de Metallurgie. In the period following, contacts to western scientists and institutions were prevented to a very large extent by administrative measures. However, due to a supplementary study at the Institute of Molecular Physics at the Moscow State University (1971-72) as well as several study trips to the JINR Dubna, he was able to strengthen his connections to scientists of the Soviet Union. Due to these long-cultivated contacts, scientists from St. Petersburg are now working at his institute.

In 1978, Peter Paufler was appointed full professor for crystallography at the University of Leipzig. This appointment indicates his scientific excellence, for a person not being a member of the ruling party of the GDR was almost unable to attain a position such as this. Until 1992, he was director of the Institute of Crystallography, Mineralogy and Materials Science at the University of Leipzig.

After the reunification of Germany, Prof. Paufler was asked by the Minister of Science and Art of the Free State of Saxony to restructure the department of physics at the TU Dresden as chairman of the council of the department in autumn of 1991. In 1992 he became professor for crystallography at the TU Dresden and director of the Institute of Crystallography and Solid State Physics. Being a member of various committees of the university, he works tirelessly on the further development of research and teaching at the TU Dresden.

The main research fields of Prof. Paufler are the investigation of the structure and mechanical properties of solids as well as the stability and physical properties of intermediate phases. His attention is, to a great extent, being focussed on metallic multilayers and the possibilities given by such systems to investigate structure formation under non-equilibrium conditions. Apart from nano-hardness measurements, the use of synchrotron radiation becomes particularly relevant, requiring new methodical developments. The spectrum of materials investigated ranges from binary Laves phases and superconducting A15 compounds as well as semiconducting III-V compounds and minerals to quaternary rare earth transition metal borocarbides and quasicrystals. The results of the investigations have been published by Prof. Paufler and his co-workers in a multitude of contributions to technical journals and collected editions.

The committed university teacher has written several monographs based on his lectures, which are of great use to experimentally working scientists, too. His "Physikalische Kristallographie" (Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1985) deserves a special mention.

Prof. Paufler's scientific achievement has been acknowledged by appointing him full member of the Leopoldina and the "Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig".

Besides his activity at the university, Prof. Paufler serves on several national and international boards, committees and organisations, such as the Managing Board of the German Research Society and the German Crystallographic Society, the latter which he presides at present, the German Research Society, for which he acts as a specialist for crystallography, the Apparatus Committee and the Senate Committee Geosciences of the German Research Society, the Executive Committee of the European Crystallographic Association and the Research Advisory Board of the German Electron Synchrotron DESY. Furthermore he acts as co-editor for "Zeitschrift für Kristallographie" and the journal "Crystal Research and Technology". In 1994, he organized the Fifteenth European Crystallographic Meeting in Dresden.

His collaborators, former students and colleagues would like to wish Prof. Paufler all the best, good health, success and pleasure in his work in the years to come.

Ursula Krämer, Kurt Richter, Werner Skrotzki (TU Dresden)