The GFZ mourns the loss of its founding director, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf Emmermann. He passed away on 10 July 2026, at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife, three children, and nine grandchildren. 

Rolf Emmermann was born on 12 January 1940, in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony. Between 1959 and 1965, he studied mineralogy, crystallography, and geochemistry at the universities of Braunschweig, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich. He earned his doctorate in 1967 at the University of Karlsruhe (then the Technical University), and completed his habilitation at the Department of Mineralogy there in 1973. He took on a position as professor at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1974 and, in 1981, he moved to the Chair of Mineralogy and Petrology at the University of Giessen, where he conducted research and taught for almost 25 years. From 1992 to 2007, he was the Scientific Executive Director at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (now the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences) on Potsdam’s Telegrafenberg.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf Emmermann was one of the most influential figures of his time in geoscience worldwide. It all began in 1986 with the Continental Deep Drilling Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany (KTB), Germany’s first large-scale national geoscientific research project. Rolf Emmermann's successful leadership embodied a significant step towards the integration of the German scientific community. His work gained international recognition, and in 1996, served as the basis for the International Continental Drilling Programme (ICDP), which was hailed as a “German model of success.” Prof. Emmermann’s power of persuasion and his ability to bring people together were also instrumental in making the ICDP possible and in driving this programme forward.  Today, the ICDP stands on equal footing with the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).

Rolf Emmermann’s greatest achievement, however, is closely linked to the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam. Shortly after German reunification, the Science Council evaluated the scientific landscape in the new federal states. The former Central Institute for Physics of the Earth (ZIPE) of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR received a very positive assessment, prompting discussions on the institute’s future. At the same time, leading geoscientists in the former West German states, under the leadership and coordination of Prof. Emmermann, had begun drafting a white paper on the future of lithosphere research in a unified Germany.

This concept was presented to the then Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) in 1991 and was well received. Thus, on Emmermann’s initiative, the groundwork was laid for the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, one of the three new major research institutions in the new federal states, with compelling arguments and a clear scientific, organizational, and political vision for the future. 

Rolf Emmermann was appointed founding director in 1991, and the new institute began operations on 1 January 1992. Prof. Emmermann’s achievements included opening of opportunities, particularly for employees from the new federal states, and attracting leading scientists from all major disciplines of the geosciences to help establish the GFZ in Potsdam.

Another notable achievement in science policy was the establishment of the GEOTECHNOLOGIES funding programme. Under Emmermann’s leadership, it was possible for the first time to bring together the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the then Federal Ministry of Education and Research to create a jointly supported, long-term geoscience funding program. The establishment of this funding program, in which universities and non-university research institutions successfully implemented a jointly developed research concept and a jointly adopted strategy, stands as one of the outstanding examples of the integration of a highly diversified scientific landscape, particularly in the field of geosciences in Germany.

A further aspect that always played a significant role in Rolf Emmermann’s professional life and that guided his actions is the responsibility of science towards society. A prime example of this is the large-scale project launched in early 2005 to establish a tsunami early-warning system in the Indian Ocean. This system is now operated as the Indonesian Early Warning System (InaTEWS). Not only was this project a major technological, scientific, and organizational challenge, it can also be regarded as one of the flagship projects through which the scientific community has demonstrated that it assumes socio-political responsibility. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami on 25 December 2004, Rolf Emmermann did not hesitate for a moment to pool Germany’s existing expertise and, on behalf of the German government, offered humanitarian assistance to Indonesia and the wider Indian Ocean region. 

His commitment extended far beyond the boundaries of his own field and even beyond the Earth sciences as a whole. He was one of the co-founders of ProWissen, a Potsdam-based organization dedicated to communicating science and research to the public, fostering connections between science and society. He was also a founding member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since 2007, Prof. Emmermann was member of the Brandenburg State Higher Education Council serving as its chair from 2011 to 2015. He also headed the Commission for the Further Development of the Lusatia Higher Education Region (2010) on behalf of the state government. 

Through numerous honorary positions and roles, Rolf Emmermann championed the communication of science, for example as president of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians (GDNÄ), as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Science Press Conference (WPK), and as president of the GeoUnion, the umbrella organization for all geoscience societies and major research institutions in Germany. He was also a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of the Academia Europaea and the German Academy of Science and Engineering, serving on the Executive Board since 2008. In recognition of his tremendous dedication, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class in 1999, an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Braunschweig in 2001, the Walter Kertz Medal from the German Geophysical Society in 2002, the Order of Merit of the State of Brandenburg in 2005, and the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2007.

Prof. Susanne Buiter, Scientific Executive Director of the GFZ, pays tribute to the deceased: “With Rolf Emmermann’s passing, we lose not only a great scientist, but also a dynamic visionary, an exceptional manager, and a champion of the geosciences. It is no coincidence that the GFZ has named its most prestigious award for service to the centre after him: the Rolf Emmermann Medal. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family. We will always honor the memory of Rolf Emmermann.”