Manfred Heckl - a pioneer in engineering acoustics

Recognition, reminiscence and missing are not tied to particular days of remembrance but such days may bundle our respective memories and thus make us painfully aware of the extent of what we are missing as well as of what we owe to what we lost. 20 years after his untimely death Manfred Heckl continues to be influential by both, by his pioneering contributions to engineering acoustics as well as by showing the way forward to a pragmatic, solution oriented approach based on optimally compromising between physical modelling and practicable handling. As both these merits, extending our scientific insight and further developing and adapting the most promising conceptual approach to relevant problems of today are of persistent relevance, it is worth of looking back to their important and exemplary roots as substantiated in the work of Manfred Heckl.This paper introduces and summarizes the work and the personality of Manfred Heckl which will be further explored and assessed in a particular memorial session being held at Inter-Noise 2016. This session will give an overview of his work and his achievements as well as of their relevance to noise control engineering from then to the present day.