In Memoriam: Thomas Beth

Thomas Beth, the internationally renowned computer scientist, mathematician, and visionary, lost his battle with cancer on August 17, 2005, at the age of 55. He left behind his wife, three daughters, and a wide family of friends, students, and colleagues, as well as a rich legacy of work in computer science, mathematics, and physics. His career started at the Universities of Göttingen and ErlangenNürnberg, where he received his diploma and PhD degrees in mathematics in 1973 and 1978, respectively. Thomas Beth received the Venia Legendi in computer science in 1984 and was Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Statistics at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London in England. From 1985 until his untimely death, he was a chaired professor of computer science at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH) in Germany where he served as the director of both the Institute for Algorithms and Cognitive Systems (IAKS) and the European Institute for System Security (E.I.S.S). Thomas Beth started his successful research career in the area of combinatorics. In his PhD thesis, he investigated resolutions of Steiner systems, and combinatorial designs became a recurring theme in his career. Although he was initially concerned with theoretical aspects of design theory, he gradually developed an interest in applications of designs in coding theory. His combinatorial work culminated in the monumental treatise on Design Theory that he wrote in 1985 jointly with Jungnickel and Lenz. After completing his PhD, his research interests broadened significantly. He started to investigate the algebraic aspects of the fast Fourier transform, where his main contribution included the design of fast Fourier transforms for solvable groups, and generalizations of the Hartley transform to algebraic discrete Fourier transforms. The results are documented in his monograph Verfahren der schnellen Fourier-Transformation. He also made efforts to convey the basic methodology to undergraduates in the textbook Mathematische Methoden der Systemtheorie: Fourieranalysis that he wrote jointly with Babovsky and Neunzert. He always understood his work on