Obituary for Prof. Dr. Norbert Schmitz

In 1971, Prof. Dr. Norbert Schmitz was appointed Director of the Institute. Until 2001, he played a key role in the experimental investigation of the properties of elementary particles and their interactions. Prof. Dr. Norbert Schmitz became a recognized researcher at an early stage of his career: after studying physics in Göttingen and completing a research stay in Berkeley (USA), he received his doctorate from LMU Munich in 1961. From 1961 to 1969, he worked as a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics, the predecessor of today’s Institute. 

In 1965, he completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and in 1969 he was appointed Scientific Member of the Institute. He conducted his experimental work within all major international collaborations at particle accelerators, both in Europe (CERN, DESY) and in the United States (Berkeley, Fermilab, Brookhaven). As a creative fundamental researcher, he achieved scientific breakthroughs, such as the experimental verification of a previously unobserved state of matter, the so-called quark–gluon plasma.

Alongside his research activities, Prof. Dr. Norbert Schmitz dedicated himself to educating future generations and regularly taught lectures at the Department of Physics at TUM until the year 2000. In 1997, he published the textbook Neutrino Physics (Teubner Verlag, Stuttgart).

The Max Planck Institute for Physics bids farewell in mourning and will remember Norbert Schmitz with gratitude and lasting respect.