ILLIES

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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18.11.1906 Hamburg/D - 19.3.1987 Hamburg/D

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Kurt Illies graduated as a mechanical engineer from Hamburg Technical University in 1930 and spent the following years mainly on the sea, to get acquainted with travels on sea ships. In 1935 Illies joined a private ship furnisher which had an in-house naval laboratory and where Illies was able to conduct experiments mainly on vibrations of ship bodies. He submitted in 1940 a PhD thesis to the Technical University of Braunschweig. After World War II warship production was prohibited to Germany, such that Illies worked in an alternative mechanical firm until 1949, when being appointed professor of naval engineering at the Hannover Technical University. There, he developed all matters relating to ship propulsion such as Diesel motors or gas turbines for naval purposes. He also investigated stop distances of large vessels that were important for security reasons. From 1956 Illies was also at the forefront of nuclear power utilization in naval engineering. He proved instrumental in the development of the first German nuclear-powered surface vessel Otto Hahn in the late 1950s, and achieved international renown in the marine engineering field.

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Illies had particular merits for the advance of Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft STG, of which he was a Member from 1932 and where he had headed the section Naval machinery. Illies was awarded its Honorary Membership in 1979 after having presided over it from 1967 to 1979. He was also awarded the Honorary Doctorate from Berlin Technical University in 1977 for his merits in advancing practical aspects of naval design. Illies was further a Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, USA from 1971, of Verein Deutscher Ingenieure VDI and a Corresponding Member of the Braunschweig Academy.

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_{Anonymous (1987). Kurt Illies. Jahrbuch der Schiffbautechnischen Gesellschaft 81: 342. P}

_{Illies, K. (1950). Zweckmässige Kesselbauarten für Seeschiffe. Jahrbuch Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft 44: 120-140.}

_{Illies, K. (1955). Entwicklung der Antriebsanlagen für Seeschiffe. Hansa 92: 135-142.}

_{Illies, K., ed. (1958). Handbuch für Schiffsingenieure und Seemaschinisten. Vieweg: Braunschweig.}

_{Illies, K. (1972). Handbuch der Schiffsbetriebstechnik. Vieweg: Braunschweig.}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1953). Illies, Kurt. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch}

_{7a: 589-590; 8: 1575. Akademie-Verlag: Berlin, with bibliography.}

_{Schnadel, G. (1976). Prof. Kurt Illies 70 Jahre. Schiff und Hafen 28(11): 1169. P}