Together with the entire Wiegrebe lab and many more colleagues and friends, I mourn the loss of my mentor Lutz Wiegrebe. He fought his cancer for four long years, now he can finally be at rest. We will never forget his enthusiasm for life and for science, his love for nature and adventures, his stubbornness and his goofy jokes.
I don't exactly remember the day I met Lutz but I remember the day that, in retrospect, marked the beginning of my scientific journey. It was autumn of 2003, at lunchtime. Over his plate of cafeteria food, Lutz mentioned he was going to start a project on object scaling in bat echolocation. He was looking for somebody to turn this into a Diploma thesis. I was indeed interested but dismissed the thought, seeing that I was mere weeks into my 5th semester and literally years away from writing a thesis. I was doing a practical on bats in the basement of Luisenstraße 14, the old Zoological Institute. But the weeks went by and I kept thinking about that project. So one day in December, I went and asked Lutz about it. From that day on, the bats have been a part of my life, and so has Lutz. He had a brilliant and very broadly educated mind, and he always was interested in and appreciative of new things to learn. He inspired everyone to always be curious and always do their best. He has shaped my scientific and therefore also my personal life like no-one else. I am indefinitely grateful for all that he has taught me and all that his memory is still teaching me every day.
Lutzi, I hope you have stereo in heaven.