Klaus Riedle (born in Innsbruck) is a German

power engineering Power engineering, also called power systems engineering, is a subfield of electrical engineering that deals with the generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization of electric power, and the electrical apparatus connected to such sy ...

scientist who has contributed to the development of more efficient

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

s for power generation.

Career

Riedle graduated from the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 1964. Following two years as visiting

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...

at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined Siemens in 1971, specializing in

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...

security. In the mid 1980s, Riedle changed his focus to

fossil fuel power plant A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, wh ...

s and eventually became president of the Siemens gas turbines division. He retired from that position in 2006. As of 2010, he headed the Siemens scientific developments department for high-temperature turbines. Riedle’s approach to research and development has been described as characterized by patience and ability to divide the improvement of complex systems into separate tasks, while always monitoring the combined effects on performance and reliability. Since 1986, Riedle is an honorary professor at the

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

institute of engineering thermodynamics, where he has been teaching

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...

power transmission Power transmission is the movement of energy from its place of generation to a location where it is applied to perform useful work. Power is defined formally as units of energy per unit time. In SI units: :\text = \frac = \frac Since the develo ...

and other subjects. He has also, until 2015, served on the governing board of the energy and environment society of the

Association of German Engineers Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) (English: Association of German Engineers) is an organization of over 150,000 engineers and natural scientists. More than 12,000 honorary experts process the latest technical findings each year to promote the techn ...

. In 2005, along with the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n scientist

Zhores Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (russian: link=no, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, ; be, Жарэс Іва́навіч Алфёраў; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed signific ...

, Riedle was awarded the

Global Energy Prize The Global Energy Prize is an international award in the field of energy industry which is given for ''"outstanding scientific research and scientific-technical developments in the field of energy which promote greater efficiency and environmental ...

for his development of high-temperature gas turbines with improved efficiency and capacity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riedle, Klaus 1941 births Living people Siemens people 21st-century German physicists Engineers from Innsbruck Technical University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg 20th-century German physicists