Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Beth, professor and long standing spokesman of the Institut für Algorithmen und Kognitive Systeme (IAKS), was born November 16, 1949 in Hannover. He studied Mathematics, Physics, and Medicine at the Universität Göttingen and received his Dr. rer. nat. in Mathematics from the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1978 after four years of employment as a research associate.

After receiving the degree of Dr. Ing. habil. in the area of Informatics in 1984 from the same university he was appointed Professor of Computer Science at the University of London and head of the Department of Computer Science and Statistics at the Royal Holloway College, University of London. There he built up the research group for cryptography.

In 1985 he took a chair of Informatics at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and, together with two colleagues, co-founded the Institut für Algorithmen und Kognitive Systeme which he has represented as a spokesman ever since.

The scientific achievements of Professor Beth were aimed at understanding algorithmic structures in larger systems or applications. This line of research, which started with his algebraic explanation of the general Fourier transform, were continued at his institute to become groundwork in modern signal and image processing. Automated tools for the decomposition of signal transforms were one result of his research which yielded efficient algorithms for different applications. New methods for medical image processing were based on these methods and the algebraic models for signal transforms. Professor Beth recognized very early the importance of the wavelet transform for data compression and pattern classification. This research was guided by the general idea to use mathematical techniques to develop solutions for a broad spectrum of tasks in signal processing and automatically realize these in very highly integrated circuits. This homogeneous development process avoids inefficiencies and design errors to a large extent.

Cryptology was another focus in the work of Professor Beth, where he followed an analogous approach. As in his other work he kept an eye on the applicability of his methods, which is reflected by his work in the European Institute of System Security (E.I.S.S.) which he founded in 1988 and headed since then. In his research in cryptology he successfully applied methods from the mathematical areas of combinatorics and algebra. In 1982 he organized an international cryptology conference at castle Feuerstein, from which the renowned series of EUROCRYPT conferences emerged.

With this background Thomas Beth was early on attracted by the newly emerging field of Quantum Computing. This area linking Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics appealed to him, not only as a researcher, but also due to the implications Quantum Computing has on cryptology. Encryption mechanisms which are classically considered to be secure become insecure with respect to techniques from Quantum Computing.

Thomas Beth became a pioneer of Quantum Computing on the national level as well as internationally. His activities led to the first priority programme of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and to the first European funding programme in this area. In Germany he headed the first and largest research group on Quantum Computing in informatics.

In the faculty for Informatics in Karlsruhe he was one of the initiators of the new scientific field of Anthropomatics. This young area uses methods and models from Informatics to describe the interaction of humans with their environment to supply solutions which are well adapted for individual requirements.

Teaching and research were inseparable for Professor Beth. Passing on his knowledge was of great concern to him and he kept up a scientific dialogue at all levels: during lectures, at his institute, in the faculty, and at national and international conferences. Many of his pupils are now in high positions in science and industry.

In spite of his severe illness he was actively involved in forming the future of Informatics, which he could help shape for only a quarter of a century. He died on August 17, 2005.

The memorial service was held in the Evangelische Stadtkirche Karlsruhe, Marktplatz on September 2nd at 3:00 pm.