It is with great sadness that we note the death of Yehuda Elkana.

Yehuda stood as godfather to our Institute from its very beginning and was an inspiration to us to his end, both in his scholarship and in his person. He was a visionary of scholarly institutions who knew how to make his visions real. Not only the MPIWG but also the Cohn Institute of the University of Tel Aviv, the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and the Central European University in Budapest all bore the imprint of his ideas and judgment. He was a personality of extraordinary force and generosity who promoted talent wherever he found it.

In the coming year the MPIWG will organize a colloquium in honor of his memory, his ideas, and his projects. With his family, friends, colleagues, and students, we mourn the passing of a great soul.