Wolfgang Götze

Wolfgang Götze passed away in Munich on 20 October 2021 at the age of 84. He was a professor of theoretical physics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) from 1970 until his retirement in 2003. He is best known for his main scientific work, the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition.

Götze was born in Fürstenwalde on the Spree on 11 July 1937. He started studying physics at the Humboldt Universität in East Berlin. Due to the political pressure, he soon left East Germany and continued his studies at the Freie Universität in West Berlin. After his graduation, he followed his scientific mentor Wolfgang Wild to the TUM, where he received his PhD on the “Dynamics of Bose liquids” in 1963, and joined the group of Wilhelm Brenig. After a stay with Leo Kadanoff at the University of Illinois, he returned to the TUM, where he was appointed full professor of theoretical physics at the age of 33.

Götze was an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher. His lectures were considered particularly demanding, and yet, or precisely because of this, they were repeatedly awarded the “Golden Chalk,” the teaching prize of the student council at the TUM. His lecture notes had an unmistakable signature that still influences his students and their teaching today.

From the mid 1980s, Götze’s research focused on the dynamics of the glass transition. With mode-coupling theory, he developed one of the world’s most influential approaches to the dynamics of liquids and to the glass transition. The predictions inspired numerous new experiments and were widely confirmed. Besides dielectric spectroscopy, various types of light scattering, studies on colloidal dispersions, and neutron scattering especially at the TUM, the theory instigated new computer simulations that contributed decisively to its establishment. The theory resists common classifications and has been controversial despite its proven successes. Today the mode-coupling transition is the essential reference point in most approaches to the glass transition, and it continues to inspire research.

After his retirement, Götze focused on his 2009 book, Dynamics of Complex Fluids, which is the crowning achievement of his work on the mode-coupling theory. He not only summarized his previous results, but he also reviewed the entire derivation of all his predictions with the mathematical rigor he was famous for. His close friend Rolf Schilling assisted him in this effort.

Götze’s work was honored with the research award of the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond in Stockholm in 1993 and with the Chisesi–Tomassoni award of the University La Sapienza in Rome in 2006. These awards reflect Götze’s close friendship with his colleagues in both places; he was known for his intensive and long-lasting interactions with colleagues. He worked out the main features of the theory with Alf Sjölander and Lennart Sjögren in Sweden, and he investigated higher glass singularities together with Piero Tartaglia and Francesco Sciortino in Rome. These singularities were initially considered a mere mathematical peculiarity of the theory, but they were later established as highly nontrivial predictions in many soft-matter systems. The German Physical Society awarded Götze the Max Planck Medal in 2006.

Götze also was an always inspiring tutor to his students. His group was deliberately small to allow intensive discussions and lively exchanges. The German term Doktorvater (doctoral father) applied quite literally to Götze and his attitude to doctoral students. We received a unique scientific education and benefited from his ingenuity, intellectual brilliance, and meticulous mathematical approach. We will never forget his diligence in writing manuscripts, which he always drafted with pen and paper in one go from title to summary, and his extraordinary assiduity in creating illustrations, which he always seemed to have clearly in his mind, even before they were generated on the computer.

Apart from his work, Götze was committed to his family. He was a loving father and a devoted grandfather, and he pursued his hobbies—mountaineering, cross-country skiing, and gardening—with friends. He spent his last years in Munich with his close family. We will always remember Götze as a great scientist and a man of integrity.