After an impressive 26-year tenure, Herbert Pfeifer has retired at the end of March 2024 as holder of the Chair of High Temperature Technology and Head of the Department of Industrial Furnaces and Heat Engineering. Since taking up his post in April 1998, Professor Pfeifer has significantly shaped the institute and developed it into a major player in high-temperature technology. His retirement marks the end of an era for the IOB.
Before taking over the chair in 1998, Professor Pfeifer had an academic and industrial career. His career began with a degree in mechanical engineering in Siegen. After completing his studies, he continued his academic career there, among other things, working as a senior engineer, obtaining his doctorate in 1984 and his habilitation in 1991. During his time as a scientist, he worked on topics such as the energetic modeling of steel casting ladles, mass and energy balances of complex processes and the use of plasma technology in metallurgy. In the process, he established close contacts with the steel industry.
In 1989, Professor Pfeifer moved from the university to industry and initially began his career at Krupp Stahl AG, working on topics including strip casting. Among other things, he was involved in the development of various melting and casting processes in steelworks in Siegen and Krefeld. He then moved to ThyssenKrupp Nirosta GmbH. The quality assurance of cold-rolled stainless steel flat products was one of his areas of responsibility at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. In 1997, he was awarded the title of “Associate Professor”.
The call for applications to fill the Chair of High Temperature Technology at RWTH Aachen University then offered him the opportunity to return to the university. Professor Pfeifer seized this opportunity and prevailed over his competitors in the appointment process. In April 1998, he was appointed university professor and head of the Department of Industrial Furnaces and Heat Engineering.
Taking over the department initially proved difficult. Staff and equipment were practically non-existent, which meant that fundamental development work had to be carried out first. He developed the institute from eight employees, mainly in the technical and administrative areas, to a team of 45 employees, 33 of whom work in the scientific field. In addition to the traditional topics of industrial furnace construction, combustion and heat transfer technology, Professor Pfeifer also established electric arc furnace technology and the flow of metallurgical melts as research areas at the IOB. More recently, low-CO2 process heat and renewable energies as well as electric heat have been added as research topics. This remarkable development of the institute is largely due to Professor Pfeifer, whose vision and commitment not only enabled the expansion of the team, but also created an atmosphere of trust and cooperation. Under his leadership, the institute has become a place where innovative ideas are born and a strong team spirit is lived.
Throughout this time, Professor Pfeifer has always placed particular emphasis on excellent teaching and has always regarded this as a top priority. This has made a significant contribution to repeatedly attracting outstanding students to the department and retaining them at the department; many have become research associates and later completed a doctorate. Among other things, eleven Otto Junker Prizes for outstanding academic achievements were awarded to students who completed their theses at the department. His teaching focused on the fundamentals of heat transfer, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. In the “High Temperature Technology” specialization, he taught the basic principles of industrial furnace technology as well as the calculation and design of industrial furnaces. These topics were supplemented by courses on simulation technology, process technology and arc furnace technology in the various degree courses at the faculty and beyond.
In addition to research and teaching, Professor Pfeifer was also active on university committees, for example as a faculties spokesperson and long-standing chairman of the examination board for the Master’s degree course in Industrial Engineering. He was also involved in the Forschungsgemeinschaft Industrieofenbau e.V. (FOGI) and is still Chairman and Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of the research institute OWI Science for Fuels gGmbH. The events established during his time at the department, such as the Aachen Oven Construction and Thermal Process Colloquium and the Hybrid Heating Network, also served to maintain contacts. In addition, Professor Pfeifer found the time to actively participate in further training events for industry, such as the seminar “Industrial Furnace Technology — Fundamentals and Applications of Natural Gas and Hydrogen Use” organized by the VDEh Steel Institute. He is also (co-)editor of several standard works, such as the Practical Handbook of Thermal Process Technology and the Handbook of Industrial Heating Technology.
All of this has led to the departmetn now being recognized throughout Europe as a leading university institute in the field of industrial furnace construction and related topics with a current focus on transformation processes on the way to decarbonized process heat at the end of Professor Pfeifer’s term of service. Professor Pfeifer leaves his successor a very well-positioned institute and big shoes to fill.
