In the night from 1st to 2nd November 2003 the German biochemicist, ecologist and cybernetician Prof. Frederic Vester passed away.
Born in 1925 in Saarbrücken he acted for many years in universities and research centers in the United States and Germany, before he founded the "Studiengruppe für Biologie und Umwelt" (Study group for biology and environment) in München (Munich, Bavaria). His work gave valuable stimuli to science, economy, ecology and politics. His main objective was achieving a deeper understanding of complex networks by a cybernetic, predominantly systems theoretic view, an understanding which cannot be obtained by detail work that would e.g. be centered on the metabolism of a single cell. After first implementations in cancer and memory research he successfully applied the networked thinking in the form of his sensitivity model for regional politics and planning of traffic systems. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 he developed an innovative system model for conflict prevention.
Vester held a chair at the Bundeswehr Military University in Munich and was a guest professor at the University St. Gallen, Switzerland. From
1993 he was member of the Club of Rome.More than 500 publications covered popular books that have been translated into 17 languages. The alerter and mastermind will leave be a rich scientific heritage, but by his absence a deep gap, too.
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