Rolf Meissner, a former president of the European Geophysical Society (EGS), passed away on 4 June 2014, shortly before his 89^th birthday.

His work spanned various areas of the geosciences, from meteorology and geophysics to seismology and planetary sciences. He completed a habilitation at the University of Frankfurt on the structure of the Earth’s crust in 1966 and, during a stint as a visiting professor at the University of Hawai’i, worked on seismic data gathered by the first Apollo missions to the Moon.

From 1971 to 1995, Meissner was the head of the Institute of Geophysics (now the Institute of Geosciences) at the University of Kiel. From 1985 to 1987, Meissner was president of EGS, a predecessor of the European Geosciences Union. While at EGS, he worked to promote closer links between the European geoscience community and the American Geophysical Union.

In Meissner’s memory, a scientific symposium will be held at the University of Kiel in June.

Read more about Rolf Meissner’s achievements on the Eos website, where Wolfgang Rabbel (Professor, Institute of Geosciences) has published a deserving tribute to one of the most influential Earth scientists in crustal and lithospheric research.

• Rolf Meissner (1925–2014) – obituary on Eos