Erich Roeckner has been honoured for being "the single most important person to develop the key tools at MPI-M needed to perform cutting-edge climate research".

“For Erich Roeckner to be the “father” of ECHAM means two things – first the intimate knowledge of all aspects of a modern atmospheric general circulation model, and second the experience of and contributions to a broad range of applications of the model in different contexts. A review of Erich Roeckner’s long and significant list of publications shows that he has dealt with almost all internal aspects of a general circulation model. These issues comprise such diverse aspects as numerics, clouds, radiation, aerosols, boundary layer, oceanic mixed layer, diffusion, and advection. His contributions to understanding of the Earth climate system mechanisms are equally impressive. They include sensitivity studies, process studies, such as cloud optical depth feedbacks, tests of physical hypotheses related to, for instance, El Niño Southern Ocean oscillation (ENSO), the generation of climate scenarios, as well as reconstructions of recent past and paleoclimatic studies. It is due to a large measure to Erich Roeckner’s contributions, and also to his introduction of a great number of other scientists into the field, that our ever more crucial understanding of the Earth climate system has achieved the level that it today has.” (Source: EGU citation).

After an education in meteorology at the University of Hamburg, the German Weather Service, and the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Lindau, Erich Roeckner spent some time as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA. In 1973, he joined the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg, first as a post-doctoral fellow, and between 1977 and 1990 as a faculty member. In 1991, Erich Roeckner joined MPI-M as a Senior Scientist.

November 12, 2005