Under this headline the Münchner Merkur reported on the award of a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize to Dr.Gerhard Hirzinger, since 1991 Honorary Professor for computer science in our faculty.

Gerhard Hirzinger, born in Schwandorf, in the Bavarian Upper Palatine, studied electrical engineering at the TU München 1964-1969. Following his doctorate, he became chief of the department for automation in the DFVLR (today: DLR) institute for dynamics of aviation systems, which he oriented toward sensor-controlled robotization. In 1992, he became director of the DLR Institute of Robotics and System Dynamics. During this time he was also concerned with the initiation and technical guidance of the very successfully operating Roboter-Technologie-Experiment (ROTEX) for the Spacelab-D2 mission, allowing for the first time in the history of space vehicles a robot equipped with multisensorial intelligence to perform prototypical tasks in space. This made Hirzinger an internationally known robotics expert.

Since then, Prof. Hirzinger has worked intensively on the technology transfer of his spacecraft knowhow to earthbound applications. One example for this is his cooperation with the school of medicine Klinikum rechts der Isar of TUM, aiming at improving instruments and automating camera guidance by tiny robots, important in minimally invasive surgery.

Gerhard.Schrott@informatik.tu-muenchen.de