Wolfgang Wild (physicist)

Wolfgang Wild (20 September 1930 – 7 April 2023) was a German nuclear physicist, academic administrator and politician. He was President of the Technical University of Munich between 1980 and 1986 and Bavarian Minister of Science between 1986 and 1989.

Early life and career
Wild was born on 20 September 1930. He studied physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After receiving his doctorate in 1955, he first worked as an assistant to Heinz Maier-Leibnitz at the Technical University of Munich. In 1957 he moved to Heidelberg University, where he investigated atomic nuclei with J. Hans D. Jensen, who later won the Nobel Prize.

His habilitation in 1960 was followed the following year by an associate professorship at the Free University of Berlin. In November of the same year, he took over the Chair of Theoretical Physics at the Department of Physics of the Technical University of Munich.

Political career
After the 1986 Bavarian state election, Franz Josef Strauss appointed Wild the first Bavarian Minister of Science.

Death
Wild died on 7 April 2023, at the age of 92.

Awards

 * Bavarian Order of Merit
 * Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st class