Prof. Dr. Klaus Pinkau studied Mathematics in Tübingen and Physics in Hamburg and Bristol (UK) from 1951 to 1956. In 1958 he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol. From 1958 to 1965 his research concentrated on the fields of high-energy physics and cosmic radiation. In 1965 he refused a full professorship at the Louisiana State University to devote himself to high-energy astrophysics and gamma-ray astronomy as a scientific member of the Max Planck Society at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. In 1969 he was appointed professor at the Technical University of Munich. From 1972 to 1977 Pinkau was managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics before turning to plasma physics and fusion research. As scientific director and chairman of the board of directors and executive of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (1981 to 1999), as chairman of the JET Council (1987 to 1990) and as chairman of the Consultative Committee for the Fusion Programme (1990 to 1998), he provided important impetus in all these fields. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Bristol (1985) and by the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (1998), and was decorated with the Federal Cross of Merit on a Ribbon, the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Wilhelm Exner Medal of the Austrian Business Association and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art. Between 1970 and 1980 Klaus Pinkau was a member of the COS group of ESA, an Investigator of ESA's Cos-B experiment, a member of ESA's Science Programme Committee, a member and later chairman of ESA's Science Advisory Committee. From 1980 to 1990 he was chairman of the founding committee for an Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin, a member of the Consultative Committee for the Fusion Programme and chairman of the Science Programme Review Team for the ESA Council. Between 1990 and 2002 Pinkau was in charge of NASA's EGRET experiments as co-principal and then as principal investigator.