PARTICLE PHYSICS

DESY mourns the loss of its former director Erich Lohrmann, an outstanding experimental physicist who had a profound influence on DESY and German particle physics. Erich Lohrmann died on 10 January in Hamburg at the age of 94. He devoted his entire life to researching the elementary building blocks of nature, promoting the scientific community and training young researchers. As a member of the CERN Board of Directors and as DESY Research Director, he shaped European large-scale research for many years as a research manager.

“With Erich Lohrmann´s passing, we have lost a gifted physicist, visionary, and teacher,” says Beate Heinemann, Chair of the DESY Board of Directors. “Even during my studies, his inspiring lectures motivated me. Later on, conversations with Erich Lohrmann were always inspiring and valuable. He achieved a great deal for DESY, our research and physics as a whole.”

Erich Lohrmann joined DESY in 1961 and initially conducted research at the 6 GeV electron synchrotron as lead scientist of the bubble chamber group. From 1968 to 1972 and 1979 to 1981, he played a key role as research director in important decisions for DESY: He was one of the few physicists who encouraged the then DESY Director Jentschke to build the electron-positron storage ring DORIS. Lohrmann initiated important international collaborations for DESY, for example with Japan, and was the leading physicist in the design and implementation of the PLUTO detector, which was located at DORIS and later moved to the PETRA storage ring. There, Lohrmann advocated for the construction of a superconducting coil, thus laying the foundation for expertise in superconducting technology, which later became a decisive prerequisite for the construction of HERA. For the HERA project, Lohrmann strongly supported Björn Wiik´s visionary proposal to build the electron-proton collider with a superconducting proton storage ring six kilometres in circumference. Lohrmann then played a key role in research at HERA and at the same time promoted the expansion of research with synchrotron radiation.

As a professor at the University of Hamburg, Lohrmann also trained many generations of young researchers. His books on high-energy physics and statistical and numerical methods of data analysis are among the standard textbooks. He recognised early on that DESY needed its own IT group. Many of his former students worked in this group.

Together with Paul Söding, he impressively documented the history of DESY´s development into one of the world´s leading research centres in the book “Von schnellen Teilchen und hellem Licht” (On Fast Particles and Bright Light). In 2016, Lohrmann was awarded the DESY Golden Pin of Honour for his services to physics research and the scientific community – a recognition of his life´s work and his tireless commitment.

Even after his retirement, Lohrmann remained active in research and was often to be found at DESY. He made significant contributions to the operation and data analysis of the ZEUS experiment and put Newton´s law of gravity to the test in the GRAVI experiment.

With the passing of Erich Lohrmann, DESY and the field of physics have lost a scientist of great vision, a teacher with a heart, and an inspiring scholar. His contribution to physics and to the promotion of scientific excellence will be remembered and continue to shape future generations.