The Department of Physics mourns the death of Professor Ulrich Bonse

Prof. Bonse received his PhD with honors from the University of Münster in 1958 and habilitated there in 1963 with a thesis "On X-ray wave fields in weakly deformed crystal lattices". After a stay as Visiting Research Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca (USA), he was appointed at TU Dortmund University in 1970, thus becoming a founding member of the Department of Physics, which he continued to shape beyond the time of his retirement in 1993. He held the first chair of physics in Dortmund, the "Chair of Experimental Physics I", which at that time was assigned to the "Department of Mathematics Physics Chemistry". Later he was, among other things, Dean of the Department of Physics, Senator of the University and later Prorector for Research and Young Scientists. Prof. Bonse has been honored several times for his research and his commitment to TU Dortmund University, e.g. with an honorary doctorate from the LMU Munich, the Physics Award of the German Physical Society, the Bertram Eugen Warren Diffraction Physics Award of the American Crystallographic Association, and the title of Honorary Senator of TU Dortmund University. 

Prof. Bonse's main research interests were X-ray interferometry and X-ray microtomography with synchrotron radiation, for which he received great national and international recognition. His research activities in Dortmund focused on high-resolution microtomography with X-rays and neutrons in the angstrom region. He is still a role model for many physicists working experimentally today. 

In his honor, the Department of Physics has established a guest chair for instrumentation named after him, which allows the department to invite internationally distinguished scientists to TU Dortmund University for one semester at a time and to work there in research and teaching in the field of instrumentation. 

With Professor Ulrich Bonse, TU Dortmund University has lost a highly esteemed and popular colleague. We will honor his memory. Our deepest sympathy goes to his relatives.