Eleonore Trefftz, who lent her name to the “Eleonore Trefftz Programme for Visiting Women Professors” has died. She passed away on 22 October 2017. The programme bearing her name was initiated in 2013 as part of TU Dresden’s Institutional Strategy.

Eleonore Trefftz studied at TU Dresden from 1941 to 1945, and spent the three subsequent years teaching and researching here. In 1948, she moved to the Max Planck Institute of Physics in Göttingen (today: the Max Planck Institute of Physics and Astrophysics in Munich). In 1971, Eleonore Trefftz was appointed a scientific member of the Max Planck Society, a position that, before her, had only been achieved by one other woman ­– Margot Becke-Goehring. Since 1994, a TU Dresden lecture theatre building on Zellescher Weg has borne the name of her father, the mathematician Erich Trefftz (1888-1937).

We extend our condolences to all members of her family.