A tribute to Professor Wolfgang Traugott Ulmer

in dinkelsbuehl, a small town in frankonia, a region on the northern borderline of Bavaria. in 1943, he finished up his secondary education in a humanistic lyceum. Shortly after receiving the baccalaureate certificate, he was drafted into the Wehrma-cht Army and sent to the east front during the World War ii. Wounded with a shot into the chest, he was moved back from the front and subjected to several-month therapy, and then relieved to civil authorities. After the War, Prof. Ulmer did medical educational courses at the faculty of Medicine of heidelberg University during 1946-1952. After completing the studies, he began his clinical carrier as an assistant in a clinic of internal medicine directed by Prof. Karla Matthes, who directs the young doctor's interests toward the pathologies of the respiratory system, and, in particular, commissions Prof. Ulmer to set up a pulmonary lab for testing lung function in the academic environment of heidelberg. the young doctor gets short-term trainings in foreign medical centers, in Groningen in the netherlands, with Prof. n.G.M. orie, in Zurich in Switzerland, with Prof. P.h. rossier, and later in the US as well. Prof. Ulmer's scientific, teaching, and practical medical work develops at a fast space. his early achievements consist of the elaboration of a method to analyze oxygen and carbon dioxide in the exhaled air, with fast responding analyzers [1-3]; the latter being later termed capnograph. in the area of respiratory mechanics , he became instrumental in popularization whole body plethysmography in Germany to study airway resistance in the bronchial tree and gas thoracic capacity after a quiet exhalation [4, 5], with the use of a Bodytest apparatus. the methodology turned out later, and still is to-date, essential for the studies of bronchodilation and reversibility of bronchospasm of various etiology. Another early achievement of Prof. Ulmer had been the initiation of clinically-oriented studies of lung compliance; which is the ability of the lungs to stretch during volume changes relative to applied changes in pressure. that triggered a flurry of functional studies, now being tenets in the respiratory pathophysiology, demonstrating , among other things, increased lung compliance in obstructive and decreased in restrictive pathologies [6-11]. in the early 1970s, Prof. Ulmer becomes head of a clinic of respiratory diseases in Bochum; the region of Germany heavily involved with coal mining industry. the new position motivates Prof. Ulmer to broaden his clinical and research interests which now …