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Memorial Tributes, Volume 11
ERNST R. G. ECKERT
1904–2004
Elected in 1970
“For contributions to the solution of basic problems in heat and mass transfer.”
BY EMIL PFENDER
ERNST R.G. ECKERT, Regents’ Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, died on July 8, 2004, less than three months before his 100th birthday. On September 13, 2004, the date of his 100th birthday, his colleagues and friends at the University of Minnesota organized the Ernst R.G. Eckert 100th Anniversary Symposium on Heat Transfer: A Career That Changed a Field. The symposium was attended by national and international leaders in the field from academia and industry.
Ernst Eckert was born September 13, 1904, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he spent his youth and attended the German Institute of Technology, earning the degree of Diplom Ingenieur (bachelor of science) in 1927 and Doctor of Ingenieurwissenschaften (doctor of engineering science) in 1931. He stayed on as an assistant at the institute until 1935, when he moved to Danzig, where Ernst Schmidt, professor and director of the engine laboratory, was conducting research into thermal radiation from solids and gases. Dr. Eckert pursued his growing interest in this field and earned his Dr. Habil. (doctorate) in thermal radiation in 1938. Professor Schmidt moved to Braunschweig, Germany, in 1937, and, after finishing his degree, Eckert followed him. There he assumed the positions of docent (associate professor) at the Institute of Technology and section chief at the newly established Aeronautical Research Institute.
