TU Wien and the Faculty of Technical Chemistry mourn the loss of Univ.Prof.i.R. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Hellmuth Schindlbauer, who passed away on 25.09.2024.

It is with deep sadness that we bid farewell to Professor Hellmuth Schindlbauer, who passed away at the ripe old age of 94. As the last Deputy Director of the Institute of Chemical Technology of Organic Substances, he was a formative personality at our university for many years. Prof. Schindlbauer enrolled in Technical Chemistry at the Technical University of Vienna in 1949. In 1957, he completed his studies with the second state examination and devoted himself to his dissertation on “A contribution to the nucleophilic and electrophilic reaction behavior of organically bound phosphorus”, which he completed in 1960. He then habilitated on the subject of “Reactions with dimethylformamide” and was awarded the venia legendi in organic chemistry in 1970. In 1973, he was appointed associate professor by resolution of the Federal President.

Professor Schindlbauer made outstanding contributions in the field of petroleum sciences, which were also recognized by the award of the Ernst Höfer Medal in 1998 by the Austrian Society for Petroleum Sciences. Even before that, he was awarded the Kardinal Innitzer Prize in 1963 for his work “On the spectroscopy of organophosphorus substances”.

In 1982, he was involved in the founding of the Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology of Petroleum Products, which was based at the Vienna University of Technology and headed by him until he moved to the Austrian Research Center Seibersdorf.

Professor Schindlbauer was also an extraordinary person in his private life. In 2022, he and his wife Hedwig were able to celebrate their rare iron wedding anniversary.

In him, our university has lost an excellent scientist whose work and other contributions to the life of the institute will always be remembered. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family.

Michael Schnürch