Erich Jantsch

Jantsch, Erich
Photographed for NW Mag in May 1972
Born	2 January 1929 Wien, Austria
Died	12 December 1980 (1980-12-13) (aged 51) Berkeley, California

Erich Jantsch (8 January 1929 – 12 December 1980) was an Austrian-born American astrophysicist, engineer, educator, author, consultant and futurist, especially known for his work in the social systems design movement in Europe in the 1970s.

Born in Vienna in 1929, Jantsch studied physics at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in astrophysics in 1951. Subsequently he did a post-doctorate study at the Indiana University Bloomington another year.

Jantsch had started his career as an astronomer at the University of Vienna, where he worked until 1957. In the mid 1950s he emigrated to the United States, but did not receive his green card until 1979. He continued to work in Europe and United States. From 1957 to 1962 Jantsch worked as engineer and physicist in Switzerland. In 1970 he was appointed Richard Merton Professor at the Technical University in Hanover, Germany.

Jantsch lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Near East and Japan. For example, he was visiting lecturer of Planning and Research Planner of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. In 1974, Jantsch stayed at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, "where he was one of the first distinguished residents invited by the Rockefeller Foundation". He was also Research Associate at MIT, where he studied the future of MIT and the American University.

Jantsch was advisor to twenty governments, several international organizations and research institutes. Among others he was "consultant to the Directorate of Scientific Development of the O.E.C.D. and as a member of the executive committee of the Club of Rome." As consultant to OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development); prepared studies on the world food problem, technological forecasting, higher education, etc. In 1971 he was the Austrian delegate to the first session of the UN Committee on Natural Resources.

For the last few years of his life, Jantsch was without a job and lived in an "apartment in Berkeley: dark and depressing room, with massage parlors above and below; a typewriter, a plant, and scattered copies of his favorite newspaper, Neue Zurcher Zeitung". It was here that he finished his last book, The Self-Organizing Universe. He made a living and supported his mother "by giving lectures ail over the world, through writing, and by relying on a few friends".

Jantsch died on December 12, 1980 in Berkeley, California "after a short but painful illness." He had been "alone and lonely, abandoned by friends, misunderstood by colleagues". His ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.