Professor Joachim Hagenauer, Head of the Institute for Communications Engineering (LNT) from 1993 to 2006, turned 70 at the end of July 2011. To celebrate his birthday the LNT organized a festive colloquium on July 21, 2011. Professor Gerhard Kramer, the second successor of Joachim Hagenauer, welcomed a large number of guests and friends from all over the world, members of the faculty and the LNT, and many of Professor Hagenauer’s students. Professor Hagenauer was “Doktorvater” to 40 students from 1990 to 2010. Talks highlighting Professor Hagenauer’s life, personality, and achievements were given by:

• Professor Daniel J. Costello from the University of Notre Dame,
• Professor John G. Proakis from the Northeastern University,
• Professor Ezio Biglieri from the University of California,
• Professor Sergio Verdú from the Princeton University,
• Professor Hans-Andrea Loeliger from the ETH Zurich,
• Dr. Gottfried Ungerböck, formerly at IBM Zurich Research Lab,
• Professor Anthony Ephremides from the University of Maryland.

Joachim Hagenauer worked together with all of them closely, with some of them already in the 1980s as Head of the Institute for Communications Technology at DLR. The talks were in part reflective, humerous, poetic, and musical, and they resoundly expressed the esteem and affection in which Professor Hagenauer is held by his colleagues. The following day we were all invited by Professor Hagenauer to a garden party to celebrate his birthday. However, the typical Munich weather made for an indoor event. The event had great music by the Erich Lutz Trio, named after Prof. Hagenauer’s longtime DLR colleague, and a delicious buffet with Franconian specialties from Joachim Hagenauer’s home area. It was a wonderful party.