Heinz Oberhummer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Heinz Oberhummer 19 May 1941 |
| Died | 24 November 2015 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Heinz Oberhummer was an Austrian physicist and skeptic. [1]
Heinz Oberhummer | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | Heinz Oberhummer 19 May 1941 |
| Died | 24 November 2015 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Heinz Oberhummer was an Austrian physicist and skeptic. [1]
Heinz Oberhummer was born in Bischofshofen and grew up in Obertauern, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Graz and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He lived in the village of Oberwölbling in the Dunkelsteinerwald, Lower Austria. Heinz Oberhummer was married and had two children.
Heinz Oberhummer was professor emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the Atominstitut of the Vienna University of Technology. His main research area was nucleosynthesis. He was also involved in questions concerning the fine-tuning of the Universe. Oberhummer, Csótó und Schlattl were able to derive quantifiable results concerning the fine-tuning of the Universe by investigating the creation of carbon and oxygen in the triple-alpha process in red giants. [2]
He was the initiator of "Nuclei in the Cosmos", the most important international conference series in the field of nuclear astrophysics taking place for the tenth time in the year 2008 at Michigan State University in the United States. [3]
He was especially engaged in the popularisation of scientific contents, including the new media. He developed Web-based learning and information systems and co-ordinated educational projects funded by the European Commission, such as Cinema and Science. [4] He was also engaged in the creation and presentation of popular science with the Science Busters in the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna along with Werner Gruber and Martin Puntigam and as a weekly radio column and podcast in the Austrian youth radio station FM4. [5]
He was member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation and the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP), the German-speaking branch of the worldwide skeptical movement. Furthermore, he was president of the "Gesellschaft für Kritisches Denken" (the Austrian branch of the GWUP), and of the Austrian "Zentralrat für Konfessionsfreie" (National Council of Non-confessionals. Heinz Oberhummer was president of the secularist initiative "Religion ist Privatsache" (Religion is a private matter). He died in Vienna on 23 November 2015.
| Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication | |
|---|---|
| German: Heinz Oberhummer Award für Wissenschaftskommunikation | |
 | |
| Awarded for | Excellence in science communication |
| Location | Vienna, Austria |
| Reward(s) | 20.000 euros |
| First awarded | 24 November 2016 |
| Website | oberhummeraward |
| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | ORF 1 |
| Runtime | 1 hour, 37 minutes |
After Oberhummer's death, the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication was established in his honor. The award is presented by the Science Busters , the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research until 2019), the Technical University of Vienna, the University of Graz, the City of Vienna, FM4 and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation.
Oberhummer Award winners receive a glass of alpaca droppings and 20.000 euros. The annual ceremony takes place in the Stadtsaal in Vienna and is broadcast on national television. [6] [7] [8]
| Year | Recipient [8] | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | James Randi | Canadian-American debunker of paranormal claims |
| 2017 | Giulia Enders | German physician and writer |
| 2018 | Adam Savage | American myth buster |
| 2019 | No Such Thing as a Fish James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber | English scientific podcast |
| 2020 | Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim | German chemist and YouTuber |
| 2021 | Coronavirus-Update Korinna Hennig , Katharina Mahrenholtz, Beke Schulmann, Christian Drosten and Sandra Ciesek | German podcast on the COVID-19 pandemic |
Hans Hass was an Austrian biologist and underwater diving pioneer. He was known mainly for being among the first scientists to popularise coral reefs, stingrays, octopuses and sharks. He pioneered the making of documentaries filmed underwater and led the development of a type of rebreather. He is also known for his energon theory and his commitment to protecting the environment.
Erhard Busek was an Austrian politician from the Christian-conservative People's Party (ÖVP). Throughout his political career, he was widely regarded as one of the leaders of the party's liberal wing. He was coordinator of the South-Eastern Cooperative Initiative (SECI) and chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe.
Bernhard Wicki was an Austrian actor and film director.
Heinz Zemanek was an Austrian computer pioneer who led the development, from 1954 to 1958, of one of the first complete transistorised computers on the European continent. The computer was nicknamed Mailüfterl — Viennese for "May breeze" — in reference to Whirlwind, a computer developed at MIT between 1945 and 1951.
Franz Friedrich 'Fritz' Grünbaum was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and popular song writer, actor, and master of ceremonies whose art collection was looted by Nazis before he was murdered in the Holocaust.
Cinema and Science (CISCI) is a European educational project of the Austrian physicist Heinz Oberhummer. It is funded by the European Commission and was awarded of being a star project. CISCI describes and explains scientific as well as pseudo-scientific contents with the help of popular movies in eight European languages. The analyses and descriptions of movie scenes for pupils and teachers is provided on a free web-based data bank. With CISCI education in science will be more interesting and pupils can be motivated to participate more in science education. The contents are continuously supplemented by scientists and teachers as well as scientifically and didactically reviewed under co-ordination of the Vienna University of Technology.
Lukas Beck is an Austrian photographer who specialises in music and theatre.
Andreas Salcher is a former Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), co-founder of the Sir Karl Popper School, consultant and author.
Rolling Stars and Planets is an Austrian visual art project of exhibitions and performances with sphere objects. The project mastered by Elisabeth Ledersberger-Lehoczky is joined by about 25 artists who come mostly from Austria, but also from Hungary and Germany.
Friedrich Stadler is an Austrian historian and philosopher and professor for history and philosophy of science at the University of Vienna. He is the founder and long-time director of the Institute Vienna Circle, which was established as a Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the Vienna University in May 2011. Currently he is a permanent fellow of this department and serves at the same time as the Director of the co-operating Vienna Circle Society, which is the continuation of the former Institute Vienna Circle as an extra-university institution.
Gerald Jatzek is an Austrian author, composer, mail artist and musician. He writes in German and English and has published books for children and adults, short stories, plays for radio, and essays. His books have been translated into Korean and Turkish, his poems have appeared in anthologies and literature papers in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA.
The Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) is a non-profit organisation promoting scientific skepticism, headquartered in Roßdorf, Germany. Its estimated membership in 2016 is 1300 who are scientists or laypersons interested in science. The GWUP annually hosts a conference with varying key subjects.
Franz Manfred Wuketits was an Austrian biologist, university teacher and epistemologist. He wrote extensively on epistemology, the history and theory of biology, evolution theory, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary epistemology and sociobiology.
The award Das Goldene Brett vorm Kopf is a negative prize awarded by the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Pseudosciences. The prize is organised by the Viennese regional group, the Society for Critical Thinking. The jury considers the "most astonishing pseudo-scientific nuisance" of the year in German-speaking countries. The award was presented for the first time in 2011 during the Sceptics Conference in Vienna. In 2016, the prize was presented simultaneously for the first time in Vienna and Hamburg.
Heinz Faßmann is an Austrian politician and professor of human geography and land-use planning at the University of Vienna. He served as the Minister of Education in the Second Kurz cabinet in the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Schallenberg government of Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg. He previously served in the same capacity from December 2017 to June 2019: he was succeeded in the post by Martin Polaschek in December 2021. Faßmann is considered to be aligned with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) but holds no formal party membership or affiliation.
Werner Gruber is an Austrian physicist, author, lecturer, and cabaret artist and is well known from ORF and as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).
Helmut Brandstätter is an Austrian journalist, author and politician (NEOS).
Konrad Paul Liessmann is an Austrian philosopher, essayist and cultural publicist. He is a university professor for "Methods of Teaching Philosophy and Ethics" at the University of Vienna. He officially retired in 2018, but continued his professorial activities at the University of Vienna on a special contract basis until the end of 2020.
Ruth Grützbauch is an Austrian astronomer, planetarium director and science communicator. After earning her doctoral degree in 2007, she conducted extragalactic research until 2013, and worked as an educator and science communicator afterwards. Since 2017, she runs the Public Space pop-up planetarium.
Monika Czernin is an Austrian writer, screenwriter, actress and film director.
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