Mit Erschütterung und tiefer Trauer muss die Fachgruppe Informatik die Nachricht vom Tode ihres hochgeschätzten Kollegen Gerhard Woeginger bekanntgeben. Nach langer schwerer Krankheit ist er am 1. April im Alter von nur 57 Jahren verstorben.
Im Jahre 2016 auf den Lehrstuhl Informatik 1 berufen, hat er als begeisterter Lehrer und produktiver Forscher gewirkt und nicht zuletzt durch sein zugewandtes und inspirierendes Wesen und sein umfassendes Wissen unsere Fachgruppe an zahlreichen Stellen bereichert.
Wir verlieren mit ihm eine herausragende Persönlichkeit. Er wird uns fehlen.
Sie können Ihre Gedanken zu Gerhard Woeginger gerne hier hinterlassen.
Lieber Gerhard,
Du hast uns, die Aachener Informatik, nicht nur durch Dein Wissen, sondern auch durch Deine liebenswürdige, leise Art ungeheuer bereichert. Danke! Wir werden Dich vermissen.
Gerhard Lakemeyer
Sprecher der Fachgruppe Informatik
You will be missed Gerhard, I will miss you. I thought that I could have continued to send you questions by email, to read your patient answers and to sometimes converting these conversations into joint papers. This has been so much fun… It is hard to believe that I cannot do that anymore and I won’t see you in Aussois next time this pandemic will give everyone the chance to meet again in person. You will be missed Gerhard, very much so.
It is truly sad to loose Gerhard. He was a great mathematician, I always enjoyed our discussions about combinatorial problems. But most important he was a good kind man. My sincere condolences to his family. He will be greatly missed by all of us.
How very sad!
Gerhard was my very first coauthor when we were both students (even though the paper only appeared many years later, in 1997). I still remember first meeting him in 1990, and driving with him to Hungary from Graz in his mother’s car. He impressed me with his amazing reading habits („I’ll go to the library now, read up on some journals!“ – „Really! How many do you read?“ – „Oh, between 20 and 30…“), his encyclopedic knowledge (that once shot down one of my manuscripts an hour before submission, because he recalled a dubious reference from the early 70s that contained the same result) – and his mischievous smile when he had pulled off another prank. (For example, getting his whole institute hooked on „Lemmings“, leaving him undisturbed to do research.)
A big loss for future students!
What a sad news! The scientific community will miss a wonderful and highly skilled mathematician. My condolences to his family.
Such a sad loss! I have known Gerhard for over 10 years. He was invited plenary speaker at the 2011 ECCO Conference in Amsterdam. Later, we worked and published together. Two years ago, after much insistence, I finally convinced him to prepare an invited survey for 4OR: “The trouble with the second quantifier”, which appeared this year, shows once more his talent, his profound mathematical knowledge, and his brilliant writing style. Gerhard, working with you and knowing you has been a privilege. I am sad and I will miss you very much.
Gerhard, I can’t believe I could communicate with you now only as one-way traffic. I really cherish the memories of the time we spent together, at Graz, at Warwick, or during any of the scientific meetings across the globe. It is truly a joy not only to chat with you over drinks but also to work with you on the crux of a research problem. You’re much missed, Gerhard!
So sad to hear this news about Gerhard’s passing. This is a tremendous loss to the community and to me personally – a loss of a co-author and friend. I will miss his energetic excitement, sharp mind, and sense of humor.
An incredible loss! How sad! Gerhard was a great researcher and contributor to the community. He was also such an interesting thinker. I shall miss him.
I am deeply saddened by this loss of a wonderful colleague who gave so much to the theoretical CS community. Gerhard’s work advanced many fields. And he was a warm and welcoming colleague. We will miss him.
Only about 3 weeks before his death, Gerhard told me how happy he was when we would hopefully meet again soon. He was full of optimism.
Gerhard’s death leaves a very big gap for all of us. I am missing him.
He was a brilliant thinker and a wonderful, lovable person.
I am deeply saddened by our community’s loss. My recent work built so much on Gerhard’s!
It is such sad and shocking news to learn that Gerhard has died. His mind was the epitome of the naturally curious. And in almost every conversation with him, there came a point where he would say something with a wry smile, and you knew he was really going to surprise you with the next thought – whether that was a reference that you hadn’t known about, or some new aspect that was seemingly self-contradictory – but you knew that you would walk away wiser and somehow specially touched by his unique perspective.
Dear Gerhard,
I was saddened to hear of your loss – its deeply disturbing and a major loss – you were always a bundle of energy and excitement. I never worked closely with you but fortunately you found a bug in our paper and joined our paper! We first exchanged letters over 30 years ago when I was doing my PhD and you were doing yours in Graz.
Lieber Gerhard,
Es ist gar nicht vorstellbar, dass wir uns nicht mehr auf einen Kaffee in Graz oder bei einem Olympiadewettbewerb treffen werden können. Es bleiben aber die Erinnerungen. Du wirst mir persönlich sehr fehlen, und natürlich werden deine großartigen Wettbewerbsaufgaben der Community sehr abgehen.
I am deeply saddened by the far too early departure of Gehard. He was truly the most brilliant mind in have ever met our field but. Yet my best memories will be the kind and pleasant personal communications we have had; I will deeply cherish especially these. Rest in peace Gerhard!
I have known Gerhard for almost 30 years and have always been impressed by his energy, amazing productivity, and variety of interests. His sudden passing is a great loss for our science and academic community.
I have known Gerhard only since he joined RWTH Aachen. He was a brilliant collegue that I miss very much. He was able to explain the concept of a complex algorithm within minutes. His talks and conversations always were inspiring. I am glad that I had him as a collegue. Unfortunately this time is over much too early.
I’m shocked by the news of the unexpected and premature loss of Gerhard. A truly brilliant, eclectic, and generous mind. My sincere condolences to his family.
Gerhard war ein außergewöhnlicher Wissenschaftler, ein Forscher mit Leib und Seele. Seine Produktivität, sein unglaublich breites Wissen und sein brennendes Interesse an so vielen Themen der Theoretischen Informatik haben mich immer wieder beeindruckt. Er ist viel zu früh gegangen. Wir werden ihn vermissen.
I first met Gerhard at ARIDAM VII in the RUTCOR in 1992. Since then it has always been a great pleasure to meet and discuss with him. I am shocked that he is no longer with us.
Dear Gerhard,
I have known you for over twenty years and I will miss you. You have brought joy to so many people’s lives and this is over far too soon. I wish I could talk to you some more.
Dear Gerhard,
you have not only been a great researcher, but also an exceptional and kind man. You have inspired and motivated me and many others. You showed great enthusiasm for solving problems, eagerness to hear and learn about new problems and kindness as well as ability to listen.
You are leaving much too early and you will be missed in so many ways.
It was great to have Gerhard as a colleage in Eindhoven and sad (but understandable) that he left for Aachen. As many have already commented, he had encyclopedic knowlege, a funny sense of humor, and took time to listen and discuss.
I had always expected that I would run into him again at some conference or workshop and we could catch up; very sad that I won’t.
This is very very sad. With Gerhard we are losing a brilliant, modest, inspiring, simply marvelous colleague.
My colleague Gerhard was an outstanding researcher and teacher who was characterised by his love and fascination for science, his sense of responsibility towards his doctoral students, his collegiality and his commitment within e.g., our RTG UnRAVeL.
Until recently, Gerhard was hopeful and optimistic, was often in his office to work, and was looking forward to participate in our Spring workshop early June.
I enormously miss Gerhard’s scientific advice, his openness, his friendliness and kindness, his reserved and unconventional manner (I will never forget his excellent lecture during his job interview in Aachen in jeans and t-shirt) with which he never put himself in the foreground.
Das war eine wirklich erschütternde Nachricht.
Ich habe mit Gerhard sehr sehr gern diskutiert
-vornehmlich während der Businesslunches der Informatik.
Seine Spezialgebiete der Mathematik interessierten
mich sehr, insbesondere seine Mitwirkung in speziellen
Gremien.
Sein Vortrag beim Tag der Informatik war das nach meiner
Meinung wirklich beste jemals dort gehaltene Referat!
Lieber Gerhard!
Es war eine Ehre, eine Freude und ein Glück mit Dir befreundet zu sein, von Dir lernen und mit Dir arbeiten zu dürfen.
Dein Wissen war so groß wie Deine Bescheidenheit, Deine Art zu inspirieren unvergleichlich,
Dein Gespür für gute Fragen unübertroffen. Deine Fähigkeit, Zusammenhänge zu erkennen und aus einem
Wirrwarr von Argumenten einen eleganten und perfekt strukturierten Beweis zu destillieren, war sensationell.
Du konntest denken, erklären und wunderbar zuhören. Es war immer bereichernd mit Dir über Geschichte, Literatur, Politik, Philosophie zu diskutieren.
Danke für alles, von Herzen! Ich werde Dich vermissen! Ruhe in Frieden mein Freund.
I known Gerhard since the beginning of our PhD times and I had and have great respect for him as a researcher but especially also as ‚Gerhard‘. We will miss him at our conferences and workshops. Rest in peace Gerhard!
Gerhard was not only an outstanding researcher and scientist, but he was also a very kind and friendly person and a great colleague. I am still very shocked that he passed away so early and will always remember him.
Hope you’ll meet your coauthors who passed away before you. The others will miss you.
Gerhard war eine wirklicher Wissenschaftler – durch und durch. Und dabei ein äusserst angenehmer Zeitgenosse und Gesprächspartner. Lieber Gerhard, vielen Dank für all deine Unterstützung und Beiträge. Wir werden an Dich denken und Dich und Dein Andenken auch in Aachen ehren.
Ich traf Gerhard zum ersten Mal 1996 auf einem Workshop in Graz. Er hielt einen Vortrag über ein Approximationsschema im
Maschinenscheduling, ein beeindruckendes Resultat. Noch beeindruckender für mich war die Art, wie er darüber vortrug. Gerhard
hatte die Gabe, seine Zuhörer bei der Hand zu nehmen, alles Wesentliche zu erklären, präzise und gleichzeitig intuitiv, und
über Unwesentliches mühelos hinwegzugehen. So prägte er zum Beispiel die Bezeichnung „Sand“ für infinitesimal kleine Jobs,
mit denen Maschinen beliebig balanciert werden können. „Das geht sich aus“ pflegte er zu sagen, wenn er beim gemeinsamen
Forschen meist als Erster das Licht am Ende des Tunnels sah. Mit jedem unserer gemeinsamen Paper verbinde ich schöne
Erinnerungen und amüsante Anekdoten. Denn Gerhard war weit mehr als der stets bescheidene Wissenschaftler, der uns alle
überragt. Sein feiner Humor in Verbindung mit seinem fundierten Wissen in Gebieten wie etwa Fußball oder TV-Serien sorgte
stets für großartige Unterhaltung. Wir haben viel zu früh einen herausragenden Kollegen, begnadeten Lehrer und guten Freund
verloren.
For the first time, we meet up in 1994, in Graz. Before that my colleagues in Minsk and I knew Gerhard in absentia thanks to his original and bright results in a specific subfield of combinatorial optimization which was also the native area for us. I remember his welcome enthusiasm about us and our results during my visit. This gave rise to cooperation our teams (TU-Graz- Minsk) for many years, an INTAS project and common publications. It was extremely sad to learn about his death in a such age. Gerhard will remain in memory and hearts of everyone who knew him not only as famous and bright researcher but also as a cordial and friendly person.
I am saddened. Gerhard Woeginger was a very inspiring and communicative colleague with broad knowledge. In addition he was a very charming and lovely person.I remember his very special (austrian) smile. His death is a great loss for the community. My condolence to his friends and his family.
This is very sad and shocking news. Gerhard was such an inspiring and humble colleague, always smiling, and with so much talent and truly encyclopedic knowledge. I remember talking to him for hours at Oberwolfach meetings after dinner, and I was always amazed by all the cool problems (and solutions) he had. It was a delight sharing mathematical insights with him. He left way too early and will be dearly missed. My condolences to his friends and family.
It is hard to learn unexpectedly about the death of a friend of more than 30 years. I remember lifely and long discussions at our institute and in the pubs of Berlin with a very gifted young Ph.D. student. Not that we always agreed. Then, it was fascinating to see Gerhard grow into the very successful scientist as which we knew him. If you knew him more closely you found that he also was a very educated and knowledgable person way beyond his field of research and sometimes had a much likeable, nearly childlike sense of humour. His untimely death touched me a lot.
Gerhard Woeginger war ein Wissenschaftler, der im positiven Sinne anders war. Man spürte das in seinen Vorträgen: Er trug originelle Argumente vor, er hielt sich nicht mit den gängigen Meinungen auf und er war geistreich. Zudem war er den Menschen zugewandt. Wir haben einen wertvollen Kollegen vetrloren.
My deepest condolence to Gerhard’s beloved ones. Such a loss to his family, to his colleagues, to the community. Gerhard, you will be so missed! I still remember your EURO2018 Plenary Speech, your visits at Erasmus and other universities, your humor, …
Was für eine niederschmetternde Nachricht! Meine herzliche Anteilnahme geht an die Familie und den engsten Freundeskreis. Dankbar können wir sein, dass wir ihn (zwar für zu kurz, aber immerhin) bei uns hatten und von seiner Herzlichkeit und Kompetenz profitieren konnten. Ich hatte vor langer Zeit einmal das Vergnügen, ihn mit einigen anderen Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus Berlin in Graz zu besuchen. Ich erinnere mich – neben den wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen, bei denen ich für alle Einsichten immer viel länger gebraucht habe als er – noch genau an herzliche, humorvolle Gespräche über die regional korrekte Aussprache von „Pallatschinken“ und das Probieren aller möglichen Obstbrand-Sorten. Ein sehr schmerzhafter Verlust; möge vieles von ihm dennoch bleiben.
We are grateful for his kind support as an editor of Acta Cybernetica, Boglárka Gazdag-Tóth and Tibor Csendes
It was very sad to learn that Gerhard passed away. Though memories of him, in my case mostly linked to our several interactions during my PhD times, will stay, no new stories will unfortunately be added. Gerhard will be missed by all of us. My deep condolences to his family.
Dear Gerhard!
When I heard about your early death, I was shocked! We have always understood each other very well as people and colleagues.
Your modesty as a scientist and your willingness to help I have always appreciated! That’s why I always valued you very much!
It is very sad to hear that Gerhard has passed away. He will be remembered as a briliant scientist, very prolific, with lots of ideas and interests, and as a kind, modest person, with lots of humor. He will be missed by the community.
Gerhard was a pure soul. Pure in his intentions, pure in his research, pure in his friendship. He was as honest as a child, and he knew more and looked deeper than any of us. There was no one like him. Rest in peace, Gerhard.
I was shocked to learn of Gerhard Woeginger’s premature death. Our paths crossed multiple times, both in research and in the context of mathematical competitions. Only a week before his death I learnt about one of his results in our local seminar. A truly great loss to the community!
Very sad and far too early … Gerhard was an outstanding researcher and a kind person. Gerhard, rest in peace!
I was very sad to hear of Gerhard’s passing. He supervised one of my first research projects when he still worked in Eindhoven, and was always so enthousiastic, encouraging, and a genuinely friendly person. He will be missed. My condolences to his friends and family.
Gerhard could invent enormous quantities of original creative problems at all levels of difficulty. He was always willing to accept invitations to help with the Austrian math olympiad until last autumn when he wanted to concentrate on his health just for a little while.
He was creative and full of energy and optimism. We will miss him.
Gerhard was enthusiastic and kind, and he knew more about IT than most of his colleagues. So it was always a pleasure meeting him during his regular visits in Graz. I was shocked hearing the sad news.
Lieber Gerhard,
seit deiner Studienzeit an der TU Graz fielst du mit deiner profunden Kenntnis der Diskreten Mathematik auf. Nach deinem Studium warst du einer der aktivsten Mitarbeiter am Institut für Optimierung. Wir alle schätzten deine innovativen Ideen und deine Bescheidenheit. Mit Dankbarkeit erinnern wir uns, dass du bis zuletzt mit Graz eng verbunden warst. Viel zu früh musstest du gehen! Meine Anteilnahme gilt deinen Angehörigen, deinen Freunden und deiner letzten Arbeitgruppe.
Dear Gerhard, From 2004 to 2011 I was your secretary in Eindhoven. You were one of the most friendly persons I have known. When you had a severe accident in Eindhoven I also was your p.a. and I got to know you more personally. Your death was a shock to me and it feels like a great loss. You will be in my heart.
Gerhard, I wish you will rest in peace. My sincere condolances to your family and friends.
A sad and unfairly early loss for his larger community – not only for discrete mathematics. For the first time about thirty years ago I met Gerhard in Graz. Our evening talk in the institute casually jumped from certain algorithms, he just ran some tests for, to current politicals topics and to tips for enjoying evenings in Graz. From then, I was always pleased when coincidentily meeting him anywhere in the professional world. He impressed with his profound knowledge, again not only in Discrete Mathematics, and all that combined with his friendly, modest personality. His open ear for other’s „unsolved problems“ sooner or later unselfishly resulted in some important reference, in some helpful mayor observation or even in solving the problem. His sometimes mischievous smile was distinctive, whether due to some brilliant idea forming in his mind or just due to enjoying some obvious nonsense talk. For all of us, Gerhard left much too early and, given more time, he would have been able to move so much more. My deep condolences go to all his relatives and friends.
Gerhard, I will keep remembering and missing your intellectual brilliance and clarity that came along with an incredible amount of knowledge, the joy that one could see in your eyes when you talked about Mathematics or many other topics, the humbleness and kindness you showed to everyone around you no matter whether that was a famous researcher you had been knowing since many years or a graduate student whom you met for the first time, and last but not least your wonderful Austrian accent. My condolences to your family and friends. Rest in peace.
Lieber Gerhard,
es war ein Freude, dich im Graduiertenkolleg zu haben. Deine freundliche und zurückhaltende Art, tat so gut. Wir beide hatten Ideen, die wir umsetzen wollten: Was mache ich nur jetzt ohne dich?
Es ist traurig, dass du gegangen bist.
Gerhard will be remembered as a genuine scholar. Brilliant, with keen insights, an appreciation for interesting problems, and open approach to making science, always happy to discuss his work and listen to others. But to me he was also one of my favorite people, and I thought of him as a friend. Always warm and cheerful. It was always a joy to meet him at conferences, especially in Dagstuhl, where he was a fixture. Talking algorithms through the day and playing games in the evening. I am going to miss this.
Dear Gerhard, you will be dearly missed! Both as a brilliant and enthusiastic researcher and no less as a modest and kind person. I always greatly enjoyed our interactions, be it in research or in political discussions. Your open enthusiasm and interest for so many things was greatly inspiring. You will hold a dear spot in our hearts and minds. Fare well Gerhard!
Ein Grosser, wenn nicht einer der Grössten Mneschlichkeitskämpfer der Republik Österreich ,
ein auf dem Bodengebliebender Star, ein Mensch wie Du und ich , stets ein Ohr offen , einer der das Elend sah und sich persönlich dafür Einsetze was zu tun dagegen, ein Mensch der für andere Menschen stets eine Lanze schlug, der mit seinem Dienst an der Menschlichkeit ganze Gerationsgeprägt hat, ist von uns Gegangen
ich bin mir sicher, das du dort wo du jetzt bist, weiter deinem Ziel nach gehen wirst, Du wirst auf ewig
in den Herzen der Mneschen denen du geholfen , die um dich waren, die du beeindruckt hast mit deinem Ich geb nicht auf sein…weiter leben , Ruhe in Frieden meine Freund ,
Gerhard was a deep and original researcher and a brilliant expositor, and above all a fine colleague, always willing to cooperate and to share ideas. Thank you Gerhard, and rest in peace, your excellent work and the inspiration you gave to us remain.
Dear Gerhard, you are a truly inspiring and generous person! I deeply appreciate all the support, insights and knowledge you shared with me.
Rest in peace.
Gerhard was a great, very principled, scientist and a very good-hearted human. He will be sorely missed. Rest in peace.
My deepest condolences to Gerhard’s family and friends. Gerhard was an inspiring and supportive faculty member during my doctoral studies in Graz. I remember and appreciated his humor, humbleness, and kindness.
It was terrible to hear that Gerhard passed away. I knew he was ill, still the
news came as a chock. I will miss his presence at meetings a lot. Especially open
problem sessions was a stage on which he would truly shine! And his talks were like a
performance. Never predictable, and always with a great story line. And I will of
course miss Gerhard as a person. So, kind, so good. Rest in peace.
Gerhard was one my favorite coauthors and important teachers. He was continuously generating wonderful problems – and generously shared them and other ideas as well. Among all our meetings in Dagstuhl and elsewhere, there is a special memory of ESA 1997 in Graz. During the conference dinner, we observed a moon eclipse. Typical of Gerhard, he claimed that he wasn’t aware of this when planning the event.
It is so sad that Gerhard had to leave this world already at such an early age. The memory of this inspiring, broadly interested, original and brilliant researcher, who dedicated his life to science, will live along in our minds. It was a privilege to be a direct colleague of him, in his Dutch years. But most of all it was great and lots of fun to be at workshops with Gerhard. Many of us have already mentioned his peculiar unique ways of being Gerhard, which made it such a pleasure to be with him. We will miss him dearly.
This is a very sad lost. I have known Gerhard for almost 30 years. It was always a joy to work with him. We will miss you.
Dear Gerhard, many thanks for the common student years at TU Graz. What a pity that you had to go so early.
Gerhard will be remembered as a down-to-earth scholar that loved computational complexity and could see connections between different problems. He has been a great colleague both at TU/e and RWTH. We will miss him.
Diese Nachricht hat mich sehr betroffen und traurig gemacht! Gerhard, von uns an der Technischen Universität Graz, „Wögi“ genannt, war in seinem Wesen einzigartig! Einfühlsam und humorvoll! Ich werde ihn stets in liebevoller Erinnerung behalten!
What a shock that Gerhard passed away! I have so good memories about my trip to Graz and our cooperation later on! I am deeply grateful for everything he taught me and I have great respect for his dedication to science. But he was so much more than a brilliant scientist! He was an inspirator, a great teacher, but an incredibly kind person above all. Thanks for everything, Gerhard!
Gerhard was a great scientist and and a close friend for many years. His passing is almost incomprehensible. He will be very sorely missed.
Mit dem Tod von Gerhard Wöginger verlieren die Studierenden der RWTH einen Professor, welcher von seinem Forschungsgebiet vollends begeistert war und diese begeisterung auch in seinen Vorlesungen vermittelte.
Wir wünschen seinen Angehörigen viel Kraft in dieser schweren Zeit.
Dear Gerhard,
There are no words to describe the shock of the loss. You are a gentle giant. I remember playing mafia game with you and spend time until it is early morning and leaving lots of empty bottles. I am glad that I did write a paper with you in late-90’s. You are a treasure and I feel the pain of the loss. You will be missed, my friend. What an early end to a brilliant mind?
As a student, Gerhard’s survey on exact algorithms for NP hard problems had a profound effect on me. He saw that I had managed to get a paper accepted to SODA on exact algorithms, and he emailed me out of the blue with a draft of the survey, requesting my comments. I remember feeling shocked that a professor would ask for my opinions on his paper.
I don’t remember what comments I gave, but I am sure I told him that his open problems were very addicting. Much of my early academic success was due to studying the open problems in this survey, very carefully and very seriously. Then later, after I met Gerhard in person, I was struck by how easy it was to talk to him, and some of my fondest memories of Dagstuhl seminars involve Gerhard in some way.
I will miss you terribly, Gerhard.
It was a shock to learn Gerhard’s sudden pass away. For me, Gerhard was special as my first (journal) paper (IPL, 1991) was written with you! You will be long missed.
I am shocked to hear that Gerhard passed away. We never met but I communicated with him on 2008/9 while I was with Intel Corporate. I read one of his papers and found it very useful to solve an engineering problem I dealt with. His response and patience was amazing. He was so kind and helped me a lot to understand how to turn his ideas into engineering practice. I always hoped to meet with him some day and thank him in person. Let him RIP.
Even if I never had the chance to listen to a lecture given by him, he did inspire me, and I often looked him up and read his work. I was just a high school student solving exercises in mathematics five years ago, and I noticed how often his problems appeared in the International Mathematical Olympiad, and how interesting, original and outstanding his submitted problems were, especially P3 in 2017, which then became a „superstar“ IMO problem. Two years after getting my high school diploma, I gathered problems for two Hungarian regional competitions, and I remember being influenced by one of his problems, I submitted a problem that derived ideas from a problem of his (the problem later didn’t get accepted for the competition, it was probably thought to be too hard). Now, researching in Graph Theory and Discrete Mathematics, I again bumped into his work and found that sadly, he passed away this year. I am still shocked, at such a young age such a brilliant scientist, who contributed a lot for amateurs to develop their problem solving skills. His presence and impact will be missed.