Reimar Lüst’s gaze was focused on stars. His insights into the structure of near-Earth space provided valuable information for space travel and communications technology.
The German astrophysicist received many awards and was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Reimar Lüst Prize promotes international science education.
After studying theoretical physics in Frankfurt, Lüst was a fellow at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. Three years later, he habilitated and taught at New York University, MIT in Massachusetts, and the California Institute of Technology. At the dawn of the space age, Lüst was Technical Director at ESA’s predecessor organization ESRO. After 9 years as director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, he headed the European Space Agency (ESA) as director general between 1984 and 1990.