Profile of Hans-Peter Dürr

Hans Peter Dürr is a quintessential transdisciplinarian. In addition to nuclear physics, elementary particles and gravitation, epistemology, and philosophy, he has advocated for responsible scientific and energy policies.

Dürr, born in 1929, was Director at the Max-Planck-Institute of Physics and Professor of Physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University, both in Munich, Germany.

In the 1980´s, Dürr advocated for peace as a member of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. He co-founded the Scientist´s Initiative for Peace in 1983. The Scientist´s Peace Congress in Mainz was attended by 3.300 scientists opposed to further nuclear armament. In 1990 another huge scientist´s convention in Göttingen warned against the militarization of space. In support of these conventions, Dürr gave a series of lectures at many German universities. Dürr is a leading critic of the American Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), otherwise known as Star Wars.

More recently, Dürr has contributed to the global environmental movement. He served as a member of the board of Greenpeace-Germany and as a member of the International Advisory Council on the Economic Development of Hainan in Harmony with the Natural Envrionment in China. In 1996 he was a member of the UN Secretary General's International Advisory Group for the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul.

Dürr is a member of the Club of Rome and serves on the scientific committee of the Vienna Internationale Akademie für Zukunftsfragen, advocating sustainable, equitable, and livable development, emphasizing energy efficiency and sufficiency as a point of entry.

• Weblinks
• Club of Rome
• Biografical Information, The Right Livelihood Award
• Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
• Video, "Wir erleben mehr als wir begreifen", TU Clausthal (german)
• Max-Planck-Institut für Physik
• Article, "Ökologische Herausforderung der Ökonomie", University of Muenster (german)
• Global Challenges Network e.V. (german)