It is with great sorrow that we have learned of the passing of Götz Paschmann on the 23rd of February, at the age of 84.
A student of professor Reimar Lüst, at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other places, Götz’s scientific career concentrated on the study of physical processes in the magnetopause, probed by the NASA Wind and the Cluster ESA satellite missions, and on the magneto-sheath current sheets using plasma and field measurements of unprecedented resolution with the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. The database of these measurements allowed him to address key unanswered questions concerning the structure and other extraordinary dynamics of magnetic reconnection and further processes in current sheets.
Well aware of the necessity to publish, and for debate in his scientific discipline, Götz was a key participant in the ISSI Forum in March 2009 led by Gerhard Haerendel, on the future of magnetosphere studies which is still exiting, so long after of the launch of Sputnik 1. The conclusions were published in the COSPAR Space Research Today magazine in 2009.
From 1997 to 2005, Götz was a Director at ISSI and a frequent visitor at ISSI, participating in more than ten Teams and Workshops, while also spending time at ISSI as a Visiting Scientist some twelve times (making him the record holder in this respect). Furthermore, Götz served ISSI as a Science Committee member between 2008 and 2012.
His remarkable smooth character and his manners in dealing with his colleague Stein Haaland and the whole ISSI Staff, will remain legendary! He was a true gentleman, an admirer and lover of Bern, and was always welcome.
Roger-M. Bonnet on behalf of ISSI