Professor Matthias Jarke

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT mourns the loss of its long-time institute director Prof. Dr. rer.pol. Matthias Jarke, who left us far too early on March 21, 2024 at the age of 71. With his passing, we have lost an outstanding leader who played a key role in shaping the development of our institute and applied computer science research in Germany for over two decades.

Matthias Jarke took over the management of FIT in 2000 – at that time still part of GMD – and successfully led the institute through the transition to a Fraunhofer Institute, linking it closely with RWTH Aachen University as the fourth Fraunhofer Institute. Under his leadership, the FIT developed into a large and successful institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. His tireless efforts for an FIT location in Aachen recently resulted in the approval of the "Fraunhofer Center for Digital Energy" on the RWTH Campus Melaten.

From 2010 to 2015, Matthias Jarke was Chairman of the Fraunhofer ICT Group and a member of the Fraunhofer Executive Board. In this role, he recognized the threat to the digital sovereignty of European companies at an early stage and initiated the development of a reference architecture in the International Data Space Association (IDSA), which is now recognized worldwide.

Matthias Jarke was a driving force in pioneering research projects and clusters of excellence such as UMIC and the Internet of Production. With his fundamental work on requirements engineering, data warehousing and metamodeling, he created the basis for today's software tools and web technologies. Until the end, he was one of the most cited scientists in Germany.

Matthias Jarke received many awards for his outstanding scientific achievements and his commitment in numerous honorary positions, including the Fraunhofer Medal, acatech membership and as a Fellow of the ACM and GI.

In Matthias Jarke, we are losing a visionary institute director, brilliant researcher and valued mentor. His life's work is both an incentive and an obligation for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. We will honor his memory.

Our condolences go out to Prof. Matthias Jarke's family, his wife Sybille and his children. 

On behalf of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT