Saturday 1 October 2011

Klaus Schoenert, 1927-2011

I received the sad news this morning that Dr Klaus Schoenert of Clausthal, Germany, passed away at the age of 84 on 24th September, 2011.

Dr Klaus Schoenert was the inventor of the High Compression Roller Mill (now known as High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR)). He was a scholar of Prof. Hans Rumpf, the founder of the Institute for Mechanical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe / Germany.

If you have any memories of Dr. Schoenert, you are invited to leave your comments here.

8 comments:

  1. Dear Barry, colleagues and Shonert´s family:

    Very sad news!

    Here from Seoul, I join you all in praying to the soul of this giant teacher and researcher in minerals processing with so many contributions to the understandings of the comminution phenomena and in particular the extraordinary high pressure mills.

    The second professional to receive the prestigious IMPC Lifetime Achievement, just after Doug Fuerstenau, Klaus was also awarded the Frank F. Aplan Award , an honor that he shared with other memorable colleagues of the IMPCouncil, as Doug , Somasundaran, John and Brij .

    Please, Stefan, accept my condolences on this sad occasion.

    Yours,
    Roberto C. Villas-Bôas
    Committee on Sustainability
    IMPCouncil
    http://www.impc.org.za

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  2. This indeed is sad news. My association with Prof Schoenert began in late 1994 whilst doing my PhD when I spent 3 months at his Institute in Clausthal using the unique comminution research equipment that he and his student had developed. The learning experience is one I have very fond memories of and certainly contributed positively to my PhD and later experimental research work. I was later also lucky enough to have Prof Schoenert examine my PhD Thesis and have many occasions to chat to him about comminution research (and other topics) at various conferences, something he did enthusiastically well into his late seventies. Prof Schoenert’s sense of humour and willingness to share a joke, sometimes at the oddest of moments, is also something that sticks in my mind. His immense contribution to our field is certainly unquestioned and he’ll be greatly missed.

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  3. This is by email from Prof. Eric Forssberg, Sweden

    A great man has passed away. He made significant contributions to comminution. I met him first time when he was working for Hans Rumpf in Karlsruhe around 1968. Later many times in the European Federation of Chemical Engineering where he was the chairman of the working party Comimnution and Classification. I had the honour of succeding him as chairman around 1995.  Her was always helpful and I am missing him.
    Kind regards
    Eric Forssberg

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  4. By email from Prof. Cyril O'Connor, South Africa:
    On the occasion of the sad passing of our dear colleague, Professor Dr Klaus Schoenert,  the International Minerals Processing Council wishes to pay tribute to this giant in the world of minerals processing. His many seminal contributions have had a major impact on minerals processing world-wide. The widespread use of the HPGR technology is but one example of the many important contributions he made during his illustrious career. Klaus Schoenert was the recipient of many awards - he was the 2nd recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the IMPC having received this at the XX International Mineral Processing Congress in Aachen in 1997.  He also received the AIME Frank F Aplan award in 1996 in recognition of his " unparalleled contributions to fracture phenomena and comminution fundamentals". The Council extends its sincere sympathies to his family at this time of bereavement.
     
    Cyril O'Connor
    Chairman: IMPC  

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  5. My condolences go out to Dr Schoenert's family.
    I started developing interest in comminution from his fundamental papers such as Role of physics in comminution, Aspects of very fine grinding and many more on High compression roller mill (HPGR). I am fortunate enough to use Dr Klaus Schonert's own lab scale HPGR machine in my graduate studies. I am thankful to him for whole of my life.

    Nikhil Dhawan
    PhD student
    University of Utah.

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  6. By email from Wang Dianzuo, China:

    I am sad to learn about Dr. Schonert's death. He made significant contributions to mineral processing,especially to comminution theory and practice. He had an academic visit to the Central South University in China When i was working as a president, I was deeply admired for his academic achievements, and then becoming his colleagues and friends.I had also visted the Claustal University he had worked and met with him severals times.
    My sincere condolences to Dr. Klaus Schonert's family.

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  7. See also: http://maelgwynmineralservices.blogspot.com/2011/10/prof-dr-ing-klaus-schonert-1927-2011.html

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  8. Thanks Barry for the link to my blog. I think Klaus Schonert has contributed as much as anyone to advancing our industry and the comminution process. I just wanted to highlight this.
    Mike Battersby
    Maelgwyn Mineral Services.

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