Renowned Polish physicist, pioneer in nanoparticle research, esteemed academic teacher, and mentor. After graduating from the Pedagogical University in Katowice, Professor Karol Krop began his career at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Metallurgy at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków as a “demonstrator” – preparing physics lecture demonstrations. His academic journey rapidly advanced. In 1960, he became an assistant at the Laboratory of Magnetic Materials, where he focused on magnetic properties investigations. In 1968, he completed his PhD in Physics with a dissertation titled “Volume Distribution Function of Precipitated Particles from Cu-Co Solid Solution and Its Magnetic Properties.”

It is with great sadness that we inform the Mössbauer community around the world about the death of Dr. Jan Żukrowski from the AGH University of Kraków, on September 26, 2024, in Krakow, at the age of 77. Jan Żukrowski was born on September 12, 1947, in Chałupki, near Racibórz, Poland. He studied physics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, obtaining MSc degree in 1970. After graduation, he started working at the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, Kraków (present name AGH University of Kraków) as an assistant (1970-1978). After completing his PhD thesis in 1978 in solid state physics he worked as an assistant professor (1978-2024). Since 2015 he had been employed at the Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology, AGH University of Kraków. In the years 1980-2005 he completed many long- and short-term research stays, including Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Clausthal and Max-Planck Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik in Germany, University of Canberra, Australia, Technische Universität Wien, Austria and Ottawa University, Canada.

Professor Ursula Wagner and her husband Professor Friedrich Wagner have passed away at an age of 88 and 86, respectively. Ursula and Friedrich Wagner in front of the Munich Research Reactor (2000) Photo taken from Mössbauer Effect Reference and Data Journal (MERDJ), March 2004, Vol. 27, No. 3 Ursula and Friedrich (Fritz) Wagner – A couple in Mössbauer Science Fritz Wagner was born in 1937 and studied physics at the Technical University of Munich. In 1960, he was looking for a topic for his diploma thesis. Professor Heinz Maier-Leibnitz suggested the topic of resonance absorption of gamma rays, which was to be supervised by his assistant Rudolf Mössbauer. Fritz Wagner’s diploma thesis was on 170Yb, and he used the then fairly new Munich research reactor to produce the 170Tm sources. During this time he saw little of Rudolf Mössbauer who soon went to CalTech in Pasadena but Mössbauer spectroscopy did not let go of Fritz Wagner in the following decades. He completed his doctoral thesis on the total reflection of 169Tm gamma radiation in 1965 under Maier Leibnitz and Paul Kienle.

Professor Roger Wäppling has passed away at an age of 82. After basic studies in physics and mathematics at Uppsala University, Sweden he was sent to Munich 1965 to learn Mössbauer spectroscopy. He returned one year later and established a Mössbauer group in Uppsala. His interest was especially magnetism but he established also good contacts with other disciplines, like chemistry and geology at the university. He supervised more than ten Ph D students mainly in the Mössbauer spectroscopy field but his broad knowledge was also utilized in other spectroscopies like myon spin resonance (MuSR) at CERN, ISIS and PSI.

It is with great sorrow that the Hungarian Mössbauer Community represented by the Network of Hungarian Mössbauer Laboratories announces the demise of its founder Professor Lajos Keszthelyi ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Professor Emeritus of both the Biological Research Centre Szeged and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest who passed away on 9 December 2022 at the age of 96. The memorial service was held on 4 January 2023 in Lajos Keszthelyi’s native place Kaposvár.

Eckhard Bill studied physics at the University of Saarland and became enthusiastic about Mössbauer spectroscopy already during his studies. He was one of the first students of Alfred (Ali) Trautwein, who did his habilitation in the group of Uli Gonser and then accepted the call for a professorship at the University of Lübeck in 1983. Enthusiastic about his young student, Ali Trautwein offered Eckhard to work with him in Lübeck and set up a laboratory for Mössbauer spectroscopy there. Thus, in a short time, Eckhard attained the position of laboratory manager, who, with his extensive experimental expertise, supervised a large number of measuring stations for Mössbauer spectroscopy at low temperatures and high magnetic fields.

Our IBAME honorary member and former IBAME chair Philipp Gütlich passed away on 9 September 2022 at the age of 88. The international Mössbauer community loses not only an excellent scientist and committed teacher but also a friend and colleague who, with immense dedication, advanced the applications of the Mössbauer effect in a diversity of research fields. Philipp Gütlich was born in 1934 in Rüsselsheim/Germany. He studied Chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt and finished the PhD thesis in 1963. During a postdoctoral research stay in Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) he became acquainted with possible applications of the Mössbauer effect in solid state research. This formed the basis of the Habilitation thesis Applications of the Mössbauer Effect in Chemistry presented at the University of Darmstadt in 1970. By two articles on the basics and applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy in the didactically oriented journal Chemie in unserer Zeit the method became well-known also in the community of chemists.

It is with great sadness that we would like to inform the Mössbauer Community worldwide of passing of Dr. John Schiffer of Argonne National Laboratory on June 6th, 2022, at the age of 91. Dr. Schiffer was was born in Hungary and emigrated to USA in 1947. He finished his PhD work at Yale University in 1954. He was a well-known nuclear physicist when Rudolf Mössbauer published his thesis work in 1958. John Schiffer was credited for discovery of Mössbauer Effect in 57Fe, when he and W. Marshall published a short article in Physical Review Letters in 1959. At the time, John Schiffer was a Guggenheim fellow, visiting Harwell in England for a year. Upon his return to Argonne National Laboratory, he continued his work on gravitational red shift using the Mössbauer transition in 57Fe.

Los Alamos National Laboratory We learned with great sadness that Dr. Hans Frauenfelder of Los Alamos National Laboratory passed away on July 10th, 2022, just 18 days shy of his 100th birthday. Dr. Frauenfleder was was born and educated in Switzerland, getting his PhD Degree at ETH Zürich in 1950. He moved to University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana in 1952 as a professor of physics. His work was mostly concentrated on Biological Physics. Yet, he was well known as the editör/author of the famous book; “The Mössbauer Effect” published in Frontiers of Physics series in 1961. There, one can find the original papers of Rudolf Mössbauer in English and German, and all the pioneering experiments performed in Europe and United States. İn the first two years of discovery of the Mössbauer Effect. He has trained around 100 PhD students while he was at the University of Illinois.

With great sorrow, we, Japanese Mössbauer community, inform you that Dr. Hirotoshi Sano, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Metropolitan University, ex-IBAME representative of Japan, and a Mössbauer Century Club member, passed away on 30 June, 2022, at the age of 94. His will and works will be inherited to younger researchers in Japan and overseas countries forever.