Pioneer of scientific computing passes away
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Scientific Computing Center, the KIT Department of Informatics and the Institute for Program Structures and Data Analysis mourn the loss of
Professor em. Dr. rer. nat. Adolf Schreiner
who passed away on March 11, 2026 at the age of 96.
With Professor Adolf Schreiner, KIT and the scientific community are losing a personality who has had a lasting impact on the development of the university's IT and high-performance computing infrastructure over decades.
Born in Munich in 1929, Schreiner studied mathematics and physics and passed his state examination in 1953. After a traineeship and working as a research assistant at the Technical University of Munich, he obtained his doctorate in 1959 in the field of kinematic differential geometry - a sound mathematical education that had a lasting impact on his analytical thinking in research, system analysis and IT infrastructure planning.
After his first professional positions in industry, Schreiner returned to the university in the early 1970s. In 1972, he took over the management of the computing center at the TH Karlsruhe - at a time when a new scientific field was being established with the founding of the Department of Informatics. As a professor specializing in large computer systems, he contributed his technical expertise and analytical perspective and played a close role in the development of computer science.
Adolf Schreiner led the Scientific Computing Center for over 25 years with strategic foresight, scientific precision and exceptional design skills. Under his leadership, a modern, high-performance IT infrastructure was created that shaped the research landscape of the campus for decades. He was responsible for the introduction and further development of several generations of high-performance computers - from early vector computing to the IBM cluster systems of the 1990s - and oversaw fundamental decisions on the expansion of central computing capacities. His thoughts on the organization of university computing centers, computing requirements planning and the long-term development of scientific IT structures were included in numerous publications and shaped the discussions in the German-speaking computer science community.
In the 1990s, Schreiner also provided important impetus for the promotion of German software development. The software competitions he initiated laid the foundation for the "Multimedia Transfer (MMT)" program, which awarded prizes to innovative projects in the field of media informatics and software development for more than a decade and had a lasting impact.
On his retirement in 1997, the university honored him with the inauguration of a new 256-node supercomputer - a highly symbolic moment in a career that was linked to the expansion of scientific computing power like no other.
Even after his active service, he remained closely associated with computer science: As one of the founding donors of the Begabtenstiftung Informatik, he was committed to supporting talented students and promoting the next generation of young scientists - a consistent continuation of his decades-long commitment to the development of computer science in Karlsruhe and beyond.
Professor Adolf Schreiner will be remembered as a scientist, university lecturer and as one of the formative minds of the early German computer science infrastructure. His work helped shape the foundation on which KIT is still built today.