On November 3, 2023, our dear colleague, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans Hoffmeister, born in 1932 in Kassel, Germany, passed away in Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, Germany.

Hans Hoffmeister finished his Dr.-Ing. degree and his habilitation at the mining university TU Clausthal. Since 1974, he had been working at Helmut-Schmidt-University in Hamburg. Hans joined IIW in these early years, working primarily in Commission IX, together with other well-known colleagues, including Trevor Gooch, Damian Kotecki, Bruno De Meester, Horst Cerjak, and Horst Herold. Prof. Hoffmeister was strongly involved in welding research for the offshore oil and gas sectors. He built the first laboratory for hyperbaric welding and developed a special torch for dry spot MAG welding of fillet welds, even applicable for circular overhead positions. His research was also focused on the avoidance of hot cracking in aluminum welds. He developed the Instrumented Restraint Cracking Test as the first cold cracking test that considered the residual stresses resulting from the shrinkage restraint of welds. Within IIW, Prof. Hoffmeister was also a member of the Board of Directors and served as Vice President from 1994 to 1997.

Prof. Hoffmeister was also well known as a failure investigator and participated in many prominent failure cases, among those, the sinking of the ferry Estonia in 1994, which based on his investigations, was attributed to the failure of welds at the bow visor hinges. In 1996, he founded the Institute of Failure Analysis and Prevention (ISSV) where he remained active after his retirement in 1997. Over the past 25 years, as an emeritus professor, he frequented the ISSV labs daily and continued as a student advisor and participant on student committees. Over the last few years, he concentrated his research on one of his great passions—corrosion and hydrogen cracking—making recent contributions on the understanding of hydrogen absorption during localized corrosion of austenitic stainless steels.

The IIW community will remember Hans as an engaging and humorous person and someone always passionate for new technical developments and a deeper understanding of complex topics. He was also a dedicated advisor who loved the technical dialog and intensive scientific exchanges, especially with his current and former students.

He leaves behind many memories, both personal and technical, within the welding community. We salute Hans Hoffmeister with our sincerest gratitude for his professional impact in our field and with our greatest affection for a leader in materials science and welding technology .