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In memoriam Klaus Biedermann

Published Apr 05, 2024

Professor Emeritus Klaus Biedermann passed away on March 30th 2024, after a brief period of illness. He was a prominent figure at KTH for many years and held several important posts, including Head of Department for Optical Research.

Klaus Biedermann 1935-2024, Photo: private

It is with great sadness we inform you that professor emeritus Klaus Biedermann passed away on March 30th 2024, after a shorter period of illness. Klaus was a prominent figure at KTH and within the Swedish optics community for many years. He held several important posts, including head of the division Fysik II at KTH as well as head of Institutet för optisk forskning, IOF (now part of RISE).

Klaus came to KTH as a postdoc in 1966, got his Docentship in 1970 and was appointed full professor in physics in 1978. His research interests were optical image quality, holography, and their applications. Klaus was passionate about transferring optical knowledge from academia to industry and society, for example through IOF, cooperation with the famous photographer Lennart Nilsson, “Lasergrottan” at KTH, the new Swedish optometry education together with Karolinska Institutet, and several Swedish and European optical societies. He was elected fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) in 1979 and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) in 1985.

Long after his retirement, Klaus has continued his path in optics and stayed up to date with new optical technologies. Until recently, he regularly participated in the division meetings at Biomedical and X-ray Physics and supported the Visual Optics group with encouragement and advice. He will be sorely missed.

Our thoughts go to his family and friends during this difficult time.

Linda Lundström, Peter Unsbo, Hans Hertz