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Prof. Hans E. Exner was born on 2 September 1938 in Klagenfurth, Austria, and died on 14 October 2009. He attended the Montan University Leoben with a major in metallurgy. In 1961 he joined Hellmut Fischmeister at the Institute of Metals Research in Stockholm, Sweden, while doing his PhD at Montan University Leoben. There he conducted research on structure- property relations in sintered cemented carbides. At the sintering conferences, Exner was always present, always involved, and always filled with new perspectives. From 1965 to 1990 he was a scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, working with Gunther Petzow, and took various visiting positions at Stuttgart University, Brown University, University of California Berkeley, and IBM Research. He joined the Materials Science Department at Darmstadt University of Technology as a professor in 1990 and retired in 2003. His publications were fundamental, dealing with particle bonding and rotation as well as pore structure evolution during sintering. He relied on two-dimensional arrays to monitor neck growth pore enlargement. Exner stuck with a subject long enough to generate unique insights, published his results, and then moved on to other topics. His contributions were recognized by several awards, including an honorary doctorate and awards from professional societies in Germany, Great Britain, USA, and Hungary. He was an honorary member of the International Metallographic Society and Fellow of the Institute of Materials. He supervised 100 PhD theses during his career.
Taken from “Sintering Science: An Historical Perspective" by R. German