With great sadness we have to announce that our highly esteemed colleague Erwin Stein, Professor emeritus of Structural Mechanics and Computational Mechanics at the Leibniz University in Hannover (Germany), passed away on December 19, 2018. Erwin has been one of the founding fathers of computational mechanics in Europe and he was a leader in our field. Among the many awards and distinctions that he received, is the Ritz-Galerkin Medal (2012), the highest distinction awarded by ECCOMAS. Erwin held great respect in the field of computational mechanics and he was a mentor and a dear friend to many in the ECCOMAS community.
Erwin Stein made profound contributions to the development of computational mechanics, notably to the theory of finite-element methods and their application in solid mechanics. His work has been characterized by a thorough and rigorous approach. From the earliest stages of his career Erwin actively pursued interactions with the applied mathematics community, which resulted in many fundamental contributions. Particularly notable in this respect are his seminal contributions to error estimation and adaptivity. His contributions to computational mechanics span more than half a century, and during this entire period Erwin acted in the vanguard of our field. His scientific legacy comprises more than three hundred scientific works and includes the Encyclopedia of Computational Mechanics, for which he served as one of the editors. Erwin Stein has also made a lasting impact in the field of computational mechanics as an advisor to several generations of doctoral students, many of whom have become full professors later in their careers.
Our community has lost an eminent colleague and many of us have lost a dear friend. Our thoughts are with Erwin’s family and loved ones. His scientific legacy will be remembered by generations to come.
Michal Kleiber (ECCOMAS president)
Harald van Brummelen (ECCOMAS secretary general)