Mourning for Professor Ulrich Buller

Ulrich Buller shaped research at Fraunhofer with a lot of enthusiasm and passion for 30 years and was known above all as a very active pioneer and skillful mediator. He laid the foundation for many forward-looking projects and collaborations with industry, universities, colleges and other research institutions. He was also closely connected to Potsdam-Golm beyond his residence. Here he headed the two Fraunhofer Institutes located in the Potsdam Science Park – first the Fraunhofer IAP and later the Fraunhofer IZI-BB.

“We mourn the loss of a highly esteemed, lovable and extraordinary person – a person who believed wholeheartedly in science and promoted it,” says Professor Alexander Böker, who now heads Fraunhofer IAP. “For him, it was always extremely important to break new ground, to network different scientific fields and institutions with each other and thus make innovations possible. In this way, as head of the institute, he had also played a key role in the development of Fraunhofer IAP, especially in the field of organic electronics and with the groundbreaking decision to locate Fraunhofer IAP at the traditional chemical site of Schkopau with the pilot plant center for polymer synthesis and processing PAZ. In addition to his high level of professional competence, he was above all a remarkable person who always met his counterpart at eye level and was also interested in the person behind the professional expertise. Even after retiring from active service, the personal exchange and well-being of the Fraunhofer Institutes at the Golm site were always close to his heart. His advice was always very welcome,” says Böker.

“We are not only losing a former institute director, but also a great person,” says Dr. Eva Ehrentreich-Förster, head of Fraunhofer IZI-BB, “he was a scientist who took the social mission of research very seriously, who was politically committed to the end.” His enthusiasm and joy in initiating research and – in his own oft-said words – “advancing” it was extraordinarily contagious and made many things possible and led to success. He was always a positive-thinking and humorous person, friendly, balancing, with soothing composure. We were able to learn a lot from him and it was always a great pleasure to work with him,” recalls Katja Okulla, his long-time consultant, who is now head of administration at Fraunhofer IZI-BB.

Ulrich Buller received his doctorate in chemistry from RWTH Aachen University and has worked at the headquarters of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft since 1984. In 1989, he took over as head of the Corporate Planning department and set up the Fraunhofer contact office at the European Union in Brussels, among other things. In 1994, he became head of the research planning department. From 1997, he led Fraunhofer IAP, first on an interim basis and from 1999 as appointed institute director. In 2005, Ulrich Buller took over the chairmanship of the Fraunhofer Group for Materials, Components.

In June 2006, Ulrich Buller was appointed to the Executive Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. There he headed the research planning department until 2013. In this role, he successfully campaigned to better network Fraunhofer in Europe and to establish an intensively used platform for exchange with stakeholders from politics and business with the Fraunhofer Forum in Berlin. The programmatic research cooperation with the Max Planck Society and the universities of applied sciences goes back to his initiative. Another important project, which he founded and accompanied with great commitment as early as 2009, was the Fraunhofer Systems Research for Electric Mobility, which, supported by the German government and with the participation of over 30 Fraunhofer Institutes, has produced groundbreaking developments. In addition, he served as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Fraunhofer Future Foundation from 2008 to 2014 since its founding. In 2007, he took over an honorary professorship for technical chemistry at the University of Potsdam.

Actually already retired, he took over the management of the Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses IZI-BB division of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology at short notice from 2014 to 2015. And this unusual step once again shows his great commitment to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Throughout his career, Professor Ulrich Buller has always had a close connection to chemistry, also as a specialist editor and editor for a chemical journal, as deputy chairman of the detergent chemistry section of the German Chemical Society or as first chairman of the Association of Soap, Perfume and Detergent Experts and second chairman of the Brandenburg Plastics Network. In recent years, he has been involved with the Brandenburg State University Council and the Economic Council of the City of Potsdam.

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The site management mourns the loss of Ulrich Buller. We will miss him very much.