Eberhard Zwicker: The man behind the scientist.

Abstract

In order to fully comprehend and appreciate the scientist Eberhard Zwicker, one has to look deeper and try to see the complete colorful personality that he was. Apart from his involvement in science and engineering, he was a dedicated family man, a loving and challenging husband, a wonderful father. He was an avid and very successful gardener and hobby farmer, an accomplished craftsman with a particular passion for working with wood. He was very partial to extended hikes through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, as well as to taking a thorough look into the heavens as a hobby astronomer, and incessantly dedicated in his boundless love, respect, and interest for all of creation. It was this interaction with nature, and with beings and things in their natural environment, that led him to a particular, generalistic, almost ecological approach in his area of science. Not only was he interested in isolated academic phenomena, but he wanted to know about the general relations with other phenomena involved. Although he was devoted to basic research, which he thought of as irreplaceable, he needed to see practical applications of this research, in particular applications directly beneficial to humankind. Whereas he wanted to see and learn about many things, he also found it most important to see the many sides of those things, the connections, the overall pattern. This wholesome approach, the joy of which he also desired to share via his teaching, is the basis for Eberhard Zwicker’s work, and taking on this approach will give the student of his work much improved insight.