Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Erich J. Plate
Professor emeritus for hydrology and water resources management
With Prof Plate we lost a scientist and academic teacher with a high international reputation, who was inspiring beyond his fields of work through his competence and extraordinary personality. Professor Plate’s high worldwide profile was generated by his contributions to stochastic hydrology, to water resources management applications, to modern risk management in the context of natural disasters, and to building aerodynamics. Besides his very comprehensive activities in research and teaching at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), formerly University of Karlsruhe, he gained special merits through his engagement in international and national associations. Among others, he was honorary and prize winning member of the German Hydrological Society (DHG), founding board member of the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV) and co-initiator of the Professional Society of Hydrological Sciences (FgHW)
Prof. Erich Plate will be unforgotten and a role model for science and research. We will keep a respectful memory.
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) mourns
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Erich J. Plate
who passed away on July 22, 2019 at the age of 90 years.
Erich Plate was the director of the Institute for Hydrology and Water Resources Management at Karlsruhe University from 1970 to his retirement in 1997.
Erich Plate was an outstanding scientist. He set standards nationally and internationally in hydrological research, building aerodynamics and also in the water resources management practice for more than 25 years. He was an inspiring teacher, a caring institute director, and remained despite his successes always modest. His example and his work shaped his field, his students and the faculty until today.
We will always keep a respectful memory.
President of KIT
Decan of KIT Faculty Civil. Geo and Environmental Sciences
Director of Section IV – Natural and Built Environment
Collegial Director of Institute for Water and Water Bodies Development
(With many thanks to Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Kron for his providing and translating the obituaries in the local Karlsruhe newspaper)
Message of condolence by Prof. Zhaoyin Wang, the President of WASER
Dear Wolfgang
It is very sad to hear the passing away of Prof. Eric Plate. The last time meeting with him and Mrs. Plate was the fall of 2016, when Dr. Yu and I visited his home in Durlach. I worked with Prof. Plate in 1989 and 1991-1994. He was my advisor and good fiend both in my research and life. Indeed, Prof. Plate brought me into international research world and changed almost my whole life. I shall never forget his thoughtful comments and his gentle behavior. A great man has passed away, and the world is poorer for it. May he rest in peace.
Prof. Plate made great efforts for the development of hydraulic engineering, German-China collaboration in the research on unsteady sediment transportation (GESINUS) and IAHR. He is one of the founders of International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) and World Association for Sedimentation and Erosion Research (WASER). He was the first Chairman of the International ad hoc committee of Flood Defence. I feel good that he had such a full life, giving important service to the world and people, which must have been a joy for him.
Please pass on my sincerest condolences to his family and friends
Regards Zhaoyin
Zhaoyin Wang
Professor, Tsinghua University,
President, World Association of Sedimentation and Erosion Research,
Chairman, UNESCO International advisory council, International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation.
