CV

In his academic work, Gottfried Sachs concerned himself with aircraft performance and characteristics, as well as flight guidance and control. He focused on innovative new flight control displays with a 3-D presentation format to improve flight control. Gottfried Sachs became known far beyond the scope of his professional field for his ground-breaking success. He also focused and continues to concern himself with fundamental research on supersonic flight and astronautical transport systems, regarding which he initiated the German Research Foundation’s Collaborate Research Center “Transatmospheric Flight Systems”, which he directed as spokesperson for 15 years. Other areas of his research include flight path optimizing to improve efficiency and fuel conservation, dynamic soaring (gliders, albatross) and bird flight with the goal of gathering bionic information on aeronautical engineering. Gottfried Sachs made a significant contribution as the publisher of many important international magazines and professional journals, and published more than 520 academic works, including four books, which were translated into Russian and Chinese, as well as twelve academic films. He has been a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 1998. He has also been a member of the board of management and secretary of the mathematics/sciences class from 2004 to 2013, and was elected vice president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

 

Short biography

1960 – 1965	Studies in mechanical engineering, concentration: flight technology, TH Darmstadt
1966 – 1977	1966-1977 Work engagements in large-scale research (German Research Institute for Aviation); higher-level education (TH Darmstadt); and industry (Dornier GmbH, Friedrichshafen)
1977 – 1983	1977-1983 Professor of aeronautical engineering and flight guidance, University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich; director of the Institute of Flight System Dynamics
1983 – 2006	1983-2006 Professor of aeronautical engineering and control, director of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, TUM
2006/2008/ 2010/2012	Vice President of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

 

Memberships and honors

Member of the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR) (since 1966)

Member of several experts’ committees in the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR) (1970-1988)

Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) (since 1975)

Member of Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) flight mechanics panel (1978-1994)

Member of the selection committee for the bestowal of the Nachwuchspreis for the DGLR
(1984-2004)

Director of the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR) subject group Flugmechanik und Flugführung (1986-1988)

Member of the program committee “Hypersonic Technology Program” of the Federal German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) (1993-1995)

Member of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) senate committee (1993-2000)

Member of the AGARD flight vehicle integration panel (1994-1996)

Member of the DLR (1999-2006)

Member of the DLR senate (1999-2006)

Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) (since 2000)

Member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) (since 2002)

Chairperson of the Bavarian academy of sciences and humanities commission on geological high pressure research (2003-2009)

Member of the board of trustees of the Foundation for the Advancement of Science in Bavaria (2004)

Member of the Bavarian academy of sciences and humanities technology forum (since 2004)

Member of the selection committee for the Bavarian government’s Bavarian Innovation Prize
(since 2007)

Spokesperson for Munich Aerospace’s academic advisory council – Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Aeronautics Section) (since 2011)

 

Scientific projects

Initiator and spokesperson of the DFG´s Collaborative Research Center (SFB) "Transatmospheric Flight Systems" (1989-2003)

Founding member and member of the board of directors of the Bavarian Consortium for High Performance Scientific Computing (FORTWIHR) (1992-2001)

Spokesperson of the assiciation of the Collaborative Research Centers for the research of the fundamentals of future aerospace transport systems, RWTH Aachen, TUM, University of Stuttgart (2000-2003)

 

Awards

• Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 1998)
• Mechanics and Control of Flight Award from the AIAA (2003)
• Award for the Development from the Hungarian Aeronautical Sciences (2003)
• Award for Best Paper of the AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference 2004, USA (2005)
• Technical Achievement Award, 6th International Conference on Nonlinear Problems in Aviation and Aerospace Conference (ICNPAA), Hungary (2006)
• Honorary doctorate from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (2008)
• Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring from the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR) (2013)

You can download "Explanations of honors and awards" here [PDF 215 KB]