The Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) mourns the loss of its long-standing scientific colleague

Dr. Helmold Schleicher
* 3 October 1944
† 5 August 2025

He worked as a staff scientist at the former Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik from August 1986 to October 2009.

Born in Korbach, Helmold Schleicher graduated from high school there in 1964 and began studying physics in the same year, initially in Marburg. After completing his preliminary degree (Vordiplom), he transferred to the University of Göttingen and, during his main studies, increasingly turned his attention to astrophysics, graduating in April 1970. His diploma thesis, entitled ‘Rough analysis of the penumbra of a stable sunspot using the growth curve method,’ was prepared in the Department of Solar Physics in Göttingen under the supervision of the department head and later director of the Kiepenheuer Institute, Prof. E.H. Schröter. 

In addition to spectral analysis methods, Helmold Schleicher was already intensively involved in the use of computers for evaluating solar physics observations and comparing them with atmospheric models of the Sun. Further work in Göttingen and at the Sac. Peak Observatory (Sunspot, New Mexico, USA) ultimately led to his thesis on ‘Numerical investigations of selected Fraunhofer lines; derivation of a model of the higher layers of the solar atmosphere’. Helmold Schleicher completed his doctorate in December 1976 at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Göttingen, with the grade ‘very good’, as he had already done with his diploma.

From May 1968 to July 1976, our former colleague was employed as a research assistant and junior researcher at the University of Göttingen and its observatory. After an interlude at the Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum, Helmold Schleicher returned to the University Observatory in Göttingen in November 1977 as a postdoctoral researcher for a total of nearly four years. From September 1981 onwards, he contributed his expertise to the newly created Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH (GWDG) in Göttingen for five years, supporting the Georg August University and the Max Planck Institutes based in Göttingen. Most recently, he headed the working group for numerical application software there.

In 1986, Helmold Schleicher moved to the Kiepenheuer Institute in Freiburg, dedicating his skills and experience to the evaluation and interpretation of observational data obtained at the newly established observatory on Tenerife. Until his retirement, Helmold Schleicher was one of the institute's prolific publishers, often collaborating with international colleagues and former KIS employees who now work at many scientific institutions involved in solar physics.

Helmold Schleicher's spectroscopy-based approach to research work placed great importance on the study of scientific literature and current publications. It was therefore only logical that he devoted himself increasingly to curating the institute's library, and became one of its most frequent users.

He remained so even after retirement. Until spring 2023, he took care of the library and continued spending a lot of time at the institute as a guest until this summer, keeping his knowledge up to date and attending the institute's internal colloquia and lectures.

We will certainly miss him and his friendly, calm and reserved manner. May he rest in peace. 

Freiburg, 15 August 2025 

KIS Board

Prof. Dr. Hardi Peter  
Dr. Johannes Heilmann