Professor emeritus Peter Läuchli passed away on May 12 at the age of 92. He was one of the founders of the Department of Computer Science.
Peter Läuchli was born on June 4, 1928 in Zurich and grew up in Winterthur. He studied theoretical physics at the ETH Zurich and was an assistant and research associate at the Institute of Applied Mathematics from 1954 to 1964, obtaining his doctorate in 1959 and his habilitation in 1961. In the autumn of 1964, the Swiss Federal Council elected him Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, and in the summer of 1968 Associate Professor of Computer Science. On October 1, 1983, he was elected by the Federal Council as Full Professor of Computer Science. After a successful career dedicated to ETH Zurich and its members, he retired in October 1993.
Peter Läuchli entered the field of scientific computing very early and was one of the founders of the "Fachgruppe für Computerwissenschaften". He participated in the establishment of the Institute, and later the Department, of Computer Science. He was not only involved in the development of the new field at ETH Zurich, but also served several times as head of the division IIIC (the precursor to D-INFK) as well as the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science. As a lecturer, he influenced generations of future engineers and scientists, among others in his lecture "Application of Computing Systems". He was highly appreciated at the department as a calm, helpful and reliable colleague. Many thanks, Professor Läuchli!