The TU Ilmenau mourns the loss of its former Vice-Rector for Research and Head of the Institute of Automation and Systems Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Horst Puta, who passed away at the age of 86 on March 6, 2026, after a serious illness. His professional career was characterized by his constant learning and striving to perfect his knowledge and skills. He conveyed this striving to his later students, undergraduates and doctoral candidates in an impressive manner.
An apprenticeship as an electromechanic from 1953 to 1956, followed by four years of professional practice, formed the basis for attending the Mittweida School of Engineering, specializing in electrical precision engineering. After working for one year as a project engineer in radio and telecommunications equipment construction in Magdeburg, he finally joined the Institute for Control Engineering at TU Ilmenau in 1964 as a technical assistant.
After completing a degree in control engineering at the TU Dresden in 1973, he became a research assistant with Prof. Reinisch in the "Optimization" research group. In 1980, he successfully completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Ilmenau under Prof. Karl Reinisch on the subject of "Optimal control of dead time systems" and from then on worked as a research assistant in the Department of Automation and Systems Engineering. After 18 months of additional studies at the Warsaw University of Technology under Prof. Wladyslaw Findeisen at the Institute of Automatic Control, he habilitated in 1987 and was appointed university lecturer for "Systems Engineering - Optimal Control" in 1988, after taking over the management of Prof. Reinisch's "System Optimization" research group in 1986. In 1992, he was appointed university professor (C3) in the field of "Dynamics and Simulation of Ecological Systems".
From 1990 to 1993 he was Vice Dean and from 1993 to 1995 Dean of the Department of Computer Science and Automation. He headed the Departments Institute for Automation and Systems Engineering from 1998 to 2006.
From 2000 to 2004, he served as Vice Rector for Research at the Technical University of Ilmenau. During this time, he was responsible for key strategic decisions that significantly strengthened the university’s academic focus. Under his leadership, research structures were consolidated, new research priorities were established, and the Technical University of Ilmenau’s international visibility was significantly enhanced. Through academic lecture series, he fostered interdisciplinary collaboration among the university’s departments. A milestone for the development and scientific reputation of the Technical University of Ilmenau was the successful application for membership in the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Research and teaching were always equally important to him In 1991, he founded the LEONARDO Office Thuringia to support student and staff mobility for Thuringian universities in Europe. In teaching, he represented the complexes of "Static Optimization", "Optimal Control", "Hierarchical Optimization", "Simulation" and "Environmental Systems Engineering". Under his leadership, the interdisciplinary degree program "Engineering Informatics" was developed and introduced in the winter semester 1996/97. Research in his field of expertise included the areas of model development, simulation and model-based optimization / management of complex systems in water management and for agricultural growth processes as well as the integrated management of solar thermal systems with storage. Prof. Puta supervised 18 doctoral students in addition to numerous diploma theses.
He paid particular attention to interdisciplinary and international cooperation. From 1995 to 2013, he was a member of the IFAC Technical Committee 5.4 "Large Scale Systems". Cooperation with Vietnam was particularly close to his heart. He initiated many projects in research and teaching and even in retirement was active in teaching at Thai Nguyen University / Vietnam for several years. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from this university in 2020.
Prof. Puta's recognition among staff and students also resulted from his dedicated and collegial manner.
He played a pivotal role in establishing and shaping the Department of Computer Science and Automation, as well as the TU Ilmenau as a whole. We will remember him with deep respect as a distinguished scholar, university professor, and dedicated champion of the university’s academic development.