Hanna von Hoerner


Hanna von Hoerner was a German astrophysicist. She founded the company von Hoerner & Sulger which produces scientific instruments, notably cosmic dust analyzers used on space missions by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

Early life

Hanna von Hoerner was born in Görlitz in 1942. Her father was the astrophysicist Sebastian von Hoerner. With his help and encouragement, she repaired radios when she was six and built an oscilloscope at the age of fourteen.
In the early 1960s, after she had graduated from her secondary school, her father moved to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US. Von Hoerner completed an electronics education in the United States and worked as a research assistant at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Education

In 1965, von Hoerner returned to West Germany to study experimental physics at Heidelberg University. In 1971 she earned an undergraduate degree and in 1974 her PhD, both at Heidelberg University.

Career

Von Hoerner, in 1973 while still working on her PhD, founded the company von Hoerner & Sulger. Based in Schwetzingen and produces scientific instruments for use in space and medicine. In 1980 von Hoerner & Sulger developed the first mass spectrometer that worked in space In 1979 van Hoerner's company was commissioned by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research to design a cosmic dust detector for use in the Vega program missions to Venus. In 1999 Von Hoerner & Sulger designed CIDA, a dust analysis instrument on board the NASA spacecraft Stardust, which launched in 1999. The company is famous for the design of COSIMA, an instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft that analyses the composition of dust particles using secondary ion mass spectrometry. Early data included images of dust particles collected in the environment of Comet 67P/C-G from the nucleus approach phase until along with secondary ion mass spectra for some of those particles.

Awards and recognition

Publications