Symposium to mark the retirement of Martin Huber
29 June 2000
A Symposium was held in ESTEC on 27 June in honour of Martin C.E. Huber, who is retiring as Head of the Space Science Department of ESA. In expressing his thanks to Martin Huber for his services to ESA and to space science, Roger Bonnet, ESA's Director of Science said: " Space Science owes a lot to your fluid leadership, you have been a great friend to all scientists - a remarkable achievement".Dr Huber spoke fondly of his colleagues: "The overwhelming share of my thanks must go to the staff of Space Science Department. Their tireless and effective work is an absolutely crucial component of European space research."
The honorary symposium was attended by distinguished scientists from all over Europe and the United States. Speakers at the afternoon session included Dr M. K|hne (PTB, Berlin), Dr J.L. Kohl (Cambridge, MA), Dr M. Arduini (CNES) and Prof. S. Vitale (University of Trento).
Martin Huber joined ESA in 1987 From ETH Zurich. But his involvement with ESA, and in particular with SOHO goes back much further. He belonged to the group of European scientists who proposed the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and introduced it as part of the first Cornerstone of ESA's 'Horizon 2000' programme. He is a co-investigator on the CDS, SUMER and UVCS instruments on SOHO, to which he contributed toric diffraction gratings and radiometric calibration services.
Dr Huber has been a member and Chairman of ESA's Solar System Working Group (1982 and 1983-86, respectively) and of the Observing Programme Committee of the European Southern Observatory, ESO (1982-84 and 1985-87, respectively) as well as of ESA's Space Science Advisory Committee, SSAC (1983-86). He is currently Chairman of the Joint Astrophysics Division of the European Astronomical Society and the European Physical Society, and Fellow of the World Economic Forum. He is also Titular Professor of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Z|rich (ETHZ), where he lectures regularly on 'Science in Space'.
