Joachim W. Janecke, professor of physics in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will retire from active faculty status on May 31, 1998.

Professor Jainecke received his Dipl.Phys. (1952) and his Dr.rer.nat. (1955) degrees from the University of Heidelberg. He first came to the University of Michigan in 1960 as a research associate and lecturer. After leaving for Florida State University in 1962, he returned to the University of Michigan in 1965 as an associate professor. He was promoted to professor in 1969. Professor Janecke has also been a frequent visiting professor at laboratories in Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, and particularly Japan, where he received a fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and a COE professorship from Osaka University.

Professor Janecke has served the University of Michigan in many roles, including terms on the Rackham graduate school executive board, the Senate Assembly, and on other University-wide committees. He has served as chair or member of 29 dissertation committees. Professor Janecke was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1972 and has served as associate editor of Atomic Data and Nuclear Tables, a standard reference source.

In a distinguished research career, Professor Janecke has contributed to physics theory with the development of nuclear mass models that are widely used in nuclear astrophysics and nuclear physics to predict masses for unstable and unknown nuclei. He has also coauthored the field's authoritative compendium of beta-decay functions.

In experimental research, he has conducted precision measurements of Coulomb energies in nuclei and other nuclear reaction measurements related to the isospin part of the nuclear force. He has also performed systematic studies of a-particle transfer reactions and clustering in nuclei, such as 2C and 160, to very long-lived a-decaying nuclei, such as 238U. He has been at the forefront in high-resolution studies of charge-exchange reactions and giant resonances, which are manifestations of the nuclear many-body system. He has performed reaction studies with short-lived unstable nuclear beams, particularly with high-energy tritons.

The Regents now salute this faculty member by naming Joachim W. Janecke professor emeritus of physics.