The Department of Physics mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Peter E. Toschek

26 June 2020, by Maiwald

Photo: P. Toschek

At the age of 87 years, our highly esteemed Emeritus Prof. Dr. Peter E. Toschek passed away in Hamburg on 25 June 2020.

Mr. Toschek studied physics at the University of Göttingen and at the University of Bonn, where he received his doctoral degree in 1961 under Wolfgang Paul with a dissertation on the scattering of gallium atoms in defined Zeeman states on argon and helium.
In 1963 he founded the first German research group for laser spectroscopy as a scientific assistant at the Institute for Applied Physics at the University of Heidelberg. This research group was soon joined by Theodor Hänsch, who later won the Nobel Prize.
He habilitated in 1968 and was appointed professor at the University of Heidelberg in 1972.
In 1981, he was appointed professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Hamburg, where he founded the Institute for Laser Physics with Günter Huber in 1989/1991 and worked until his retirement in 1998.

Mr. Toschek was involved in atomic physics, quantum optics and the physics of the laser. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of laser spectroscopy and became famous for the storage of single isolated atoms (ions) in an experimentally controlled environment, which he realized for the first time.

Even after his retirement in 1998, Mr. Toschek remained scientifically active at the Institute for Laser Physics and came regularly to his office.

We will miss his alert spirit and his immeasurable experience. We will keep an honourable memory of him.

With his death a successful and esteemed scientist has passed away.

Irmgard Flick - Department Management

Wolfgang Hansen - Department management