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Eberhard Gersing at the ICPRBI meeting in Gdansk (Poland) during the XII ICEBI, 2004
Eberhard Gersing Haus, Osypka Medical GmbH, in Berlin.
Inaugurated on
April 18 2009. |
‘There is a time for everything.’ This was the
maxim of Eberhard Gersing and his wife Lieselott, with their desire to put
it to use the way intended by God. For Eberhard Gersing, the usable,
creative and ephemeral time came to an end. He died peacefully at his home
in Goettingen, Germany, on May 22nd, 2009.
There is a time for everything. Being aware that
time is a gift from God, Eberhard Gersing took his time to meet other
people with kindness, authenticity and honesty. Despite his
accomplishments in science, Eberhard Gersing never lost his vision towards
the meaning of life. He was not only a great listener but also a valuable
advisor. In a very polite way he presented his arguments, weighted other
opinions, and adhered to proven things or things important to him. For
Eberhard Gersing, a conversation was never over. There was always a new
beginning. For him it was important to understand about himself and the
world.
Eberhard Gersing applied this attitude to his
professional career. Beyond understanding
life sciences, he wanted to make a difference in using his knowledge and
competence to design apparatuses and methods for the benefit of
humans.
Eberhard Gersing was born on June 2nd,
1930, in Trier / Mosel, Germany. His life was stamped by the
technical interest, a legacy of his father who died at an early age, and
the religious compassion lived by his mother. Eberhard Gersing studied
mathematics and physics at the University of Bonn, Germany, where he
earned his Master’s degree and then Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) working in the
field of atomic physics. He participated in the design of the 2.3 GeV
synchrotron in Bonn. In 1970 he was named project leader at the
Max-Planck-Institute at the Department of Atomic
Reactions.
In 1975, Eberhard Gersing joined the Department of
Physiology at the Medical University of Goettingen (head: Prof. Dr. H.J.
Bretschneider) in the field of biophysics, initially directed towards
blood-gas analysis and mass spectrometry. In 1979, he was charged to
develop methods for monitoring ischemia in organs and their extended
viability when subject to protective methods. Eberhard Gersing elected
impedance spectroscopy as a suitable method, laying the foundation for his
well-known bioimpedance laboratory. In a systematical and fully automated
setup, his analysis apparatuses and methods accompanied numerous animal
experiments. During this time Eberhard Gersing not only developed new
hardware concepts and reduced them to practice, he also led interested
physicians, physicists and engineers to successfully earn their academic
degrees. Numerous presentations and publications showed his determination
and competency in research towards practical
applications.
In 1990, Eberhard Gersing established the
Goettingen working group for Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT).
Primary focus was on the development of a 16-channel parallel spectroscopy
system and a method for producing tomographic images based on the
imaginary part and phase of impedance (Patent DE 43 32
257).
In 1995, Eberhard Gersing retired after chairing the 9th International Conference on Electrical Bioimpedance (ICEBI) in Heidelberg, Germany. He continued his research work as a consultant for the Department of Experimental Anaesthesiology at the University of Goettingen, and for Osypka Medical (Berlin, Germany). Eberhard Gersing is named inventor on several patent and patent applications in particular in the field of thoracic electrical bioimpedance (TEB).
Eberhard Gersing published numerous scientific papers and was best known for his
pioneering work in clarifying the origins of the low-frequency behaviour
of the electrical impedance induced by organ ischemia. In many thoroughly
designed experiments he demonstrated the related phenomena, the spectral
features reflecting oxygen deficiency during different medical treatments.
Eberhard Gersing also developed and validated models for explaining the
underlying physiological mechanisms (theory of the closing gap-junctions).
For these important scientific contributions he received the Hermann
Schwan Award from the International Society for Electrical Bio-Impedance
in 2007.
We are thankful that Eberhard Gersing witnessed
the inauguration of the ‘Eberhard Gersing Haus’, the new facility of
Osypka Medical in Berlin, Germany, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 3, on April 18,
2009.
Eberhard Gersing is survived by his beloved wife of more than 25 years, Lieselott Gersing. |
