Special Colloquium in Memoriam Peter Armbruster

Special Colloquium in Memoriam Peter Armbruster

• Welcome and Introduction 
• Matthias Schädel (GSI)
  • Peter Armbruster – A Devoted Universal Explorer’s Passion for Separators and his Life Journey to Superheavy Elements
    Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Armbruster, an outstanding personality, was a gifted explorer with exceptional multiple talents, skills and interests. He was an internationally renowned atomic and nuclear physicist. Born 25 July 1931 in Dachau, Peter Armbruster experienced formative years in his youth before studying physics at the TH Stuttgart and TH Munich, where he obtained his doctorate (1961) and habilitation (1964) under Professor Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. To pursue his research at the Munich Research Reactor (FRM), Peter Armbruster has built an innovative gas-filled separator; the beginning of a lifelong liking of these instruments and a basis of his scientific career. Skipping interesting years of Peter Armbruster as a scientist and science advisor at a variety of research institutes, this contribution will focus on i) his role as one of the founding directors of GSI (beginning 1971) – briefly mentioning selected aspects of the early period of GSI, its founding and building the UNILAC accelerator and SHIP recoil separator – and ii) his pioneering contributions from 1976 to 1989, as the division head leading the SHIP group step-by-step to the discovery of the superheavy elements 107, 108, and 109; later named bohrium, Bh, hassium, Hs, and meitnerium, Mt, respectively. Again, the three-year intermission period, which began in 1989, when he was seconded to the European Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, as the Research Director, will be skipped. Back at GSI in 1992, he enjoyed the discovery of elements 110, 111, and 112 (1994-96) at the, in the meantime, upgraded SHIP and the naming of these elements darmstadtium, Ds, roentgenium, Rg, and copernicium, Cn, respectively. With this enormous success, which significantly contributed not only to our understanding of one of the limits of nature and but also to the scientific reputation of GSI, Peter Armbruster retired on July 31, 1996. However, in the subsequent years, he remained highly interested in all aspects of superheavy element research. As a real friend of the nuclear chemistry at the GSI, he closely observed the superheavy element research at the gas-filled separator TASCA. For more than two decades after his retirement, he attended international conferences and remained a critical and inspiring discussion partner. Peter Armbruster, a wonderful person, passionate scientist, dear colleague, good advisor, and a nature and peace loving true European passed away on June 26, 2024.

• Beatriz Jurado (LP2iB, CNRS/IN2P3, France)
  • Nuclear Fission: Questions Unanswered and Milestones Achieved
    In this presentation, I will explore the fundamentals of nuclear fission, tracing the history of its discovery and its profound impact on both science and society. I will then outline the current open questions in fission research and present selected recent results obtained at GSI/FAIR. Throughout the talk, I will highlight the foundational role of Peter Armbruster and his collaborators, who revolutionized the field by introducing fission studies in inverse kinematics.
• Fond Memories Presented by Monique Bernas
• Closing Remarks 

From ca 6:30pm: reception at the GSI Canteen.

Registration is required, both for in-person and online participation! 

Zoom Access:
 
https://gsi-fair.zoom-x.de/j/68377952941

Meeting-ID: 683 7795 2941
Kenncode: Coll-2306