The Vienna University of Technology mourns the loss of Univ. Prof. DI Dr. techn. Alfred Schmidt, who passed away on October 5, 2025.

It is with deep sadness that we say goodbye to our esteemed colleague, who passed away at the age of 97.

He was born on New Year's Eve 1928 in Vienna's 6th district, was widowed at the time of his death, and was the father of a daughter and a son. After attending high school in Marchettigasse in Vienna, where he graduated in 1946, he studied technical chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology and received his doctorate in technical sciences in 1952. From 1952 to 1954, he was an assistant at the Institute of Process Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. During this time, he received a postgraduate scholarship that took him to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. From 1954 to 1973, he worked in the research department of Österreichische Stickstoffwerke AG in Linz, developing new production processes. In 1960, he received a research scholarship from the International Energy Agency in Paris.

After completing his habilitation in technical chemistry at TU Wien in 1969, he accepted a professorship at the Institute for Process Engineering, Fuel Technology, and Environmental Technology at TU Wien in 1973, which he headed as director until 1997. From 1979 to 1983, he was dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at TU Wien. In addition, he worked as a civil engineer for technical chemistry with numerous companies in the chemical industry in Austria. From 1978, he was coordinator of the bioenergy research area for the Federal Ministry of Science and Research. The aim was to develop the first research program for bioenergy in Austria.

Numerous stays abroad accompanied his many years of scientific work. In 1979, for example, he worked as a scientific expert for UNIDO in Syria. At the International Energy Agency in Paris, he was the long-standing Austrian representative on the Executive Committee of the Bioenergy Agreement and in the Renewable Energy Working Party. From 1982 to 1986, he served as chairman of the committee. From 1982 to 1992, he was the Austrian representative in the Renewable Energy Working Party of the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Throughout his scientific career, Alfred Schmidt held many positions: From 1984 to 1990, he was a scientific advisor for the Environmental Fund (renamed the Eco Fund in 1987) at the Federal Ministry of Health and Environmental Protection. From 1985, he was a member of the Austrian Federal Government's Ecology Commission and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From 1990 to 1995, he was president of the Austrian Chemical Society, and from 1990 to 1996, he was an international reviewer of submissions to the EU's JOULE, THERMIE, and LIFE research programs, a member of the Chemicals Commission and chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Chemicals Commission of the Federal Ministry for the Environment from 1993 to 1996, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Geesthacht Research Center in Germany from 1993 to 2003, from 1993 to 2008 Chairman of the Council of Environmental Experts of the City of Vienna, and from 1995 to 2013 Scientific Director of the MSc program “Environmental Management Austria” and EU Cluster Coordinator for Bioenergy.

In his teaching, Alfred Schmidt was particularly keen to give students an insight into the reality of industrial practice. He illustrated his lectures with numerous relevant examples from the chemical industry. The excursions he and his team organized to a wide variety of companies were also particularly attractive and very popular with students. For example, they took students to lignite mines and the mining front, giving them a sense of the hard work involved in underground mining. The trips to ACHEMA in Frankfurt were particularly instructive for learning about new developments in apparatus and plant engineering. Thanks to his industry contacts, Alfred Schmidt was able to combine these trips with visits to well-known German industrial companies. Overall, Alfred Schmidt taught the students the essentials of technical chemistry in preparation for a career in the chemical or process engineering industry.

He received numerous honors for his outstanding contributions to science, including the Lower Austria Award for Excellence in Science (1985), the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class (1987), the Hans Kudlich Prize from the Austrian Society for Agricultural and Forestry Policy (1989), the prize of the foundation “100 Years of Electricity Industry – 40 Years of Verbund Group in Austria” (1990), and the Golden Medal of Honor for Services to the Province of Vienna (2008). Alfred Schmidt's extremely successful scientific work is also represented by over 160 publications, including two books, and approximately 65 patents.

We bid farewell to Alfred Schmidt with gratitude and appreciation. With his passing, the Vienna University of Technology loses an outstanding teacher and versatile scientist, and the institute loses a highly valued colleague.

On behalf of all colleagues at the Institute of Process Engineering, Environmental Technology, and Technical Biosciences

Robert Mach, Institute Director