Ekhard Karl Hermann Salje, FRS (1946-2025) was an Emeritus Professor, and formerly Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University.
Education and career
Ekhard Salje completed his University Teacher’s Dissertation in 1972, and by 1983 was the Head of Department at the Institute for Crystallography and Petrology at the Leibniz University Hannover. In 1985 he moved to Cambridge where was awarded a Professorship in Mineral Physics in the Department of Earth Sciences in 1992. He worked jointly in the Department of Physics Cavendish Laboratory.
In 1998 he assumed the post of Head of Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, which he retained until October 2008.
In October 2001 he became President of Clare Hall, a post he held until 2008 when he was succeeded by Sir Martin Harris.Clare Hall elects New President http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2008030305
Research Professor Salje's research was focused in the field of mineralogy and mineral physics using approaches that combine theoretical and experimental methods. In particular, he was concerned with the stability of minerals and the transformation processes that occur within them in response to changes in temperature and pressure. His work included the study of structural phase transitions, the formation of polaronic states in transition metal oxides like WO3, and ferroelasticity. The dynamics of phase transitions includes the movements of nano-domains which progress as avalanches in most cases. He discovered avalanche behaviour by experiment and computer simulation in ferroelastics, ferroelectrics and martensitic alloys. His work in the field of mineral physics was rewarded in 1996 when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.Professor Ekhard Salje awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany This was followed by his election as Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Academiques (France) in 2004, and the award of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2007. He was fellow of the Leopoldina (Nat. Academy of Germany) and the Royal Society of the Arts and Sciences of Barcelona.
He was the co-author of a Royal Society report on nuclear waste and was chairman of the Steering Committee of the National Institute for Environmental e-Sciences. As Programme Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute he was responsible for joint research in the field of Future Technologies. He was chairman of the Cambridge e-science Centre and chairman of the steering committee of the Cambridge Environmental Initiative (CEI) which advises on environmental research in Cambridge. He was president of the British branch of the Alexander von Humboldt Association. He was chairman of the Cambridge European Trust, member of the Wissenschaftsrat (Germany), Int. Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), and the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (UK).
Professor Salje was visiting professor in Japan, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, University of Paris VI, Bilbao, Grenoble, Le Mans. He was honorary Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University (China) and Ulam fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Selected bibliography He published over 700 scientific papers and 3 books.
Awards Fellow of Leopoldina (German Academy of Natural Sciences), 1994 Abraham-Gottlob-Werner medal in mineralogy, 1994 Fellow of the Royal Society, 1996 Mombusho Professor, Institute of Physics and Geological Society, Japan, 1996 Schlumberger medal of the Mineralogical Society, 1998 Humboldt Research Prize, 2000 Honorary Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, 2001 Ernst Ising prize for Physics, 2002 Gold medal of the University of Hamburg, 2002 Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Academiques, 2004 Agricola medal for Applied Mineralogy, 2006 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, first class (Germany), 2006 Foreign member of the Royal Soc. of Barcelona for Arts and Sciences, 2010 Honorary Professor, Jiao-Tong University, China, 2012 Werner Heisenberg medal 2017 Honorary PhD (Dr. h.c.) University of Wuerzburg, 2019 Hon. Senator (Ehrensenator) University of Wuerzburg, 2020 Member Academia Europaea, 2021 Friendship award and medal, China, 2024 Honorary PhD (Dr. h.c.) Leibniz University Hanover, 2024
References
External links Personal web page at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge Presidents web page at Clare Hall CEI Profile page