SC Online News has been saddened to learn of the sudden death of the ISC General Chair, Hans Werner Meuer, a visionary leader and a unique human being.

Hans, aged 77, passed away peacefully in his home in Daisbach, Southern Germany, last night after a brief and courageous battle with cancer.

Hans' demise is bereaved by his wife, Ursula, his sons, Andreas, Martin and Thomas, daughter-in-laws, his grandchildren, his twin sister, nephews and nieces, as well as friends, and colleagues.

Martin and Thomas Meuer inherit his legacy, and will act as the managing directors of Prometeus, the company behind the ISC conference series.

Hans Werner Meuer has been involved in data processing since 1960. He served as specialist, project leader, group and department chief during his 11 years, from 1962 – 1973, at the Research Center in Jülich, Germany.

For the following 26 years, he was director of the computing center and professor for computer science at the University of Mannheim, Germany. From 1998 – 2013, he was the managing director of Prometeus GmbH that manages all ISC events. Since 2000 he was professor emeritus at the University of Mannheim, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Hans Meuer studied mathematics, physics and politics at the universities of Marburg and Giessen in Germany and in Vienna, Austria. He graduated at the University of Giessen in 1962. In 1972, while working for the Research Center in Jülich, he received his doctorate in applied mathematics from the Rheinisch Research Westfälische Technical University (RWTH) of Aachen. Since 1974, he was professor of mathematics computer science at the University of Mannheim with specialization in software engineering. He was involved in the areas of supercomputing /parallel computing for 33 years.

In 1986, he became co‐founder and organizer of the first Mannheim Super Computer Seminar (later since 2001 known as the International Supercomputing Conference – ISC, which has been held annually ever since. Hans Meuer was the Conference General Chair since the very beginning.

In 1993, Hans Meuer started the TOP500 initiative together with Erich Strohmaier (previously at the University of Mannheim, currently at LBNL in Berkeley) and Jack Dongarra (University of Tennessee and ORNL). In the TOP500 the most powerful computers in the world are listed – ranked by their best performance on the Linpack Benchmark. The list is updated twice a year. The first of these updates always coincides with the ISC Conference in Germany in June; the second one is presented in November at the IEEE Supercomputer Conference in the U.S. The 42nd List was published at SC13 in Denver last November.

In addition to his afore mentioned activities, Hans Meuer has also been editor‐in‐chief of the professional German IT journal PIK - Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation (published by KG Saur Verlag München, Munich), from 1986 – 2004. He is a member of the professional organizations ACM and GI. He has also published numerous articles in the areas of mathematics, data processing and computer science.

In 1999, Hans Meuer became chairman of the governing board of cjt – Systemsoftware AG, Stutensee, Germany, and from 2000 – 2004, he was the chairman of the governing board of SHE Informationstechnologie AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany.