Prof. Dr. Lutz Richter

Lutz Richter was a full professor at the Department of Informatics from 1984 until his retirement in 2001. He was the head of the Systems Architecture and Software Research Group at IfI.

Lutz Richter received a diploma degree in Mathematics and Physics from FU Berlin in 1961. Then he joined the Nuclear Power Research Center (Kernforschungsanlage) in Jülich, Germany. There he became the head of the computing centrer in 1963. In 1967, he received a PhD in Mathematics from RWTH Aachen University. In 1972, he became a full professor of Informatics at the University of Dortmund, Germany. After twelve years, in fall 1984, he joined the University of Zurich, where he was a full professor at the Department of Informatics (IfI) until his retirement in 2001.

His research interests at IfI included – among others – software maintenance, parallel and distributed systems, and RISC architectures. He primarily taught courses on systems architecture and software, operating systems, computer architecture and distributed systems.

Lutz Richter was widely known for his work on microprogrammig, operating systems and later on systems architecture and software maintenance. He was the co-founder and first Program Chair of the CSMR conference series in 1997. He also was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Microprocessing and Microprogramming (today the Journal on Systems Architecture – JSA).

Beyond that, Lutz was a wonderful colleague. All who have known him will remember his friedliness, his ability to moderate in difficult situations and his support for students, collaborators and colleagues.

Lutz Richter died on April 1, 2017  at the age of 81.

Martin Glinz, Professor, Department Head 2007-2016