Concept
Hans-Peter Dürr (7 October 1929 – 18 May 2014) was a German physicist. He worked on nuclear and quantum physics, elementary particles and gravitation, epistemology, and philosophy, and he advocated responsible scientific and energy policies. In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his profound critique of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and his work to convert high technology to peaceful uses." Born in Stuttgart. Between 1978 and 1992 he was executive Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich several times. He was Vice executive director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner-Heisenberg-Institute) 1972-1977, 1981–1986 and 1993-1995. Until 1997 he was professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University, both in Munich, Germany. Dürr completed his Ph.D. in 1956 after studying physics in Stuttgart (Dipl.-Phys. 1953) and at University of California, Berkeley, supervised by Edward Teller. In 1962 he was a guest professor in Berkeley, California and Madras, India. As "the" follower of Werner Heisenberg, he specialized in nuclear physics, quantum physics, elementary particles and gravitation, epistemology and philosophy. He was Heisenberg's closest ally in their attempts to develop a unified field theory of elementary particles. He also champions various social justice causes, and helped fund the "David against Goliath" organization protesting against a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Bavaria. In the 1980s, Dürr advocated the cause of peace as a member of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1983, he helped co-fund the Scientists' Initiative "Responsibility for Peace", which led to the Scientists' Peace Congress in Mainz attended by 3,300 scientists and the Mainzer Appell, a declaration against further nuclear armament. In 1990, another large scientists' convention in Göttingen warned against the militarization of space. In support of these conventions, Dürr gave a series of lectures at numerous German universities.
