Ann. Phys. (Berlin) 524, No. 3–4, A57–A58 (2012) / DOI 10.1002/andp.201200716Laudation

LAUDATION

Ulrich Eckern’s 60th birthdayGerd Schön

Ulrich Eckern began studyingphysics in 1970 at the TU Dort-mund. He was one of the – few –first-generation physics students atthis new university, who compen-sated for the lack of established stu-dent life by intensive interactionswith the new professors and assis-tants (like me), well-developed so-cial contacts, and memorable par-ties. For his diploma thesis and PhDwork Ulli joined the group of Al-bert Schmid and moved with himto Karlsruhe University in 1976. Top-ics of Ulli’s early work were, e.g.,nonequilibrium superconductivitysuch as charge imbalance relaxationprocesses, investigated in a collab-oration with John Clarke and MikeTinkham [1], and the stability ofnonequilibrium states in driven sys-tems [2]. Similar phenomena in su-perfluid 3He were studied in his PhDthesis [3], which he defended in 1979with the degree ‘summa cum laude’.

Soon thereafter Ulli moved fortwo years to Cornell University towork as postdoc with Vinay Ambe-gaokar. Together we explored dissi-pative effects in macroscopic quan-tum mechanical systems, specifi-cally the influence of quasiparticletunneling on the quantum dynam-ics of low-capacitance Josephsonjunctions [4]. For the next few years,dissipation and relaxation processeswere the central issue of Ulli’s workback in Karlsruhe, with further appli-cations to superconductors, charge-density wave systems [5], solitons,

Ulrich Eckern (Photo by U. Eckern, 2007)

and condensed Bose gases, the latteralso being the topic of his ‘habilita-tion’ thesis [6]. In 1989 Ulrich Eckernreceived the Walter Schottky Prize ofthe German Physical Society (sharedwith W. Zwerger and me). Togetherwith Albert Schmid he discoveredthat vortices in Josephson junction

arrays or granular superconductingfilms behave as quantum mechani-cal particles with a mass (dependingon the capacitances) and subject toforces and dissipation [7]. Moreover,he helped resolving the controversialissue about the magnitude of persis-tent currents in small normal-metal

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Laudation

G. Schön: Laudation

rings by investigating the effects ofthe electron-electron interaction [8].

In 1993 Ulrich Eckern was ap-pointed full professor at the Univer-sity of Augsburg. In the followingyears he contributed substantially tothe scientific success and visibilityof his department by establishing– as founding member and princi-pal investigator – several major DFG-funded research projects. The cen-tral issues of his scientific work werethe electronic properties of modelsystems as well as of real materials.For example, the role of randomnesson the ground state properties of in-tegrable models were studied suc-cessfully with the help of the den-sity matrix renormalization grouptechnique [9]. Particles obeying frac-tional statistics were treated with theBethe ansatz [10]. In order to inves-tigate electronic and magnetic prop-erties of real materials, Ulli and hisgroup employed density functionaltheory (DFT) [11]. In a model cal-culation they studied the questionwhether an ‘exact’ – or at least an‘improved’ – DFT might be able toquantitatively describe charge trans-port through inhomogeneous sys-tems [12]. The present volume of An-nalen der Physik provides samples ofrelated work on these modern top-ics.

Beyond that, Ulrich Eckern en-gaged substantially in many ofthe academic, honorable but time-consuming managing duties. He wasManaging Director of the Institute ofPhysics (1993–95, 2003–06), Dean ofthe Mathematics and Natural Sci-ences Faculty (1996–98), member ofthe Senate (for several years), as wellas Prorector (1999–2001) of the Uni-versity of Augsburg. In addition, Ulliserved for six years as member of theCouncil of the German Physical So-ciety, and as member of the HerthaSponer Prize Committee. Recently,

he was elected into the DFG ReviewBoard for Theoretical CondensedMatter Physics.

In 2003 Ulrich Eckern started,together with the mathematiciansBernd Aulbach and Saber Elaydi, anoteworthy initiative, “ECCE” [13],which aims at establishing a centerof excellence in mathematics andtheoretical physics in Palestine. Fora few years, this project has beensupported by UNESCO; a UNESCOChair has been established at BirzeitUniversity, and a bi-annual confer-ence series on modern trends inmathematics and physics was initi-ated in 2008.

Last but not least, Ulrich Eck-ern acted for several years as Ed-itor in Chief for the Annalen derPhysik. With his deep understandingof physics, his many good nationaland international contacts, and withhis persistence and care he con-tributed in an invaluable way to theongoing success of this prestigiousjournal with 222 years of history. Be-side many special issues that he or-ganized (see [14]), he also engaged inmodernizing the journal. During hiseditorship the journal became avail-able online for the readers, a mod-ern online manuscript submissionsystem has been implemented, andthe journal volume counts were reor-ganized to ease the further develop-ment of the journal [15].

On 9 March Ulrich Eckern turned60. It is a pleasure for us to con-gratulate him on this occasion, andto devote this issue of Annalen derPhysik to topics which are close tohis scientific interests.

Gerd SchönInstitut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik,Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,Karlsruhe, Germany,E-mail: schoen@kit.edu

References

[1] J. Clarke, U. Eckern, A. Schmid,G. Schön, and M. Tinkham, Phys.Rev. B 20, 3933 (1979).

[2] U. Eckern, A. Schmid,M. Schmutz, and G. Schön, J. LowTemp. Phys. 36, 643 (1979).

[3] U. Eckern, Kinetic Equations forSuperfluid 3Helium and their Ap-plication to the Nuclear MagneticResonance, PhD Thesis, Univer-sity of Karlsruhe, Juli 1979; Ann.Phys. (New York) 133, 390 (1981).

[4] V. Ambegaokar, U. Eckern, andG. Schön, Phys. Rev. Lett. 48,1745 (1982).

[5] S. Ramakrishna, M. P. Maher,V. Ambegaokar, and U. Eckern,Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2066 (1992).

[6] U. Eckern, Relaxation Processesin a Condensed Bose Gas, Ha-bilitation Thesis, University ofKarlsruhe, Mai 1984; J. Low Temp.Phys. 54, 333 (1984).

[7] U. Eckern and A. Schmid, Phys.Rev. B 10, 6441 (1989).

[8] V. Ambegaokar and U. Eckern,Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 381 (1990);U. Eckern and A. Schmid, Euro-phys. Lett. 18, 457 (1992).

[9] P. Schmitteckert, T. Schulze,C. Schuster, P. Schwab, andU. Eckern, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80,560 (1998).

[10] A. Osterloh, L. Amico, andU. Eckern, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen.33, L487 (2000).

[11] M. M. Fadlallah, C. Schuster,U. Schwingenschlögl, I. Rung-ger, and U. Eckern, Phys. Rev. B80, 235332 (2009).

[12] S. Schenk, M. Dzierzawa,P. Schwab, and U. Eckern, Phys.Rev. B 78, 165102 (2008);S. Schenk, P. Schwab,M. Dzierzawa, and U. Eckern,Phys. Rev. B 83, 115128 (2011).

[13] http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/ifk/ecce/.

[14] U. Eckern, Ann. Phys.(Berlin) 523, 962 (2011), DOI10.1002/andp.201152322.

[15] G. W. Fuchs and U. Eckern, Ann.Phys. (Berlin) 522, 371 (2010),DOI 10.1002/andp.201010453.

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