Prof. Martin Polke passed away on 07 June 2018

Prof. Martin Polke, former member of the NAMUR Board of Management and for many years its Chairman, honorary member of NAMUR, passed away on 07 June 2018.

During his active period in NAMUR in which he served as member of the Board of Management and its Chairman, Martin Polke greatly contributed to the national and international recognition of NAMUR as the user association of automation technology in process industries. He initiated the reorganisation of the Association and its Working Groups and created a new impetus for the contents of NAMUR’s work. He placed strong emphasis on the recognition that a holistic approach to the various disciplines involved in automation was indispensable and that information should be regarded as a major production factor. Concepts like plane model and phase model, requirements specification and functional specification, the notion that an object can be viewed from different perspectives, and the need for structured information were important parts of his message.

Martin Polke played an instrumental role in shaping NAMUR’s structure and contents.

Even after his retirement he attended NAMUR Annual General Meetings as a welcome guest. Quite a few comments from the audience were his.

Martin Polke left his mark not only on NAMUR. As chairman of GMA and professor at RWTH Aachen he rendered a great service to these institutions as well by continuing to develop process control technology. His merits were acknowledged when he received the VDI’s Otto Winkler Medal of Honour, among other recognitions.

NAMUR mourns a member of outstanding merit.