Otto Rössler

Otto Eberhard Rössler (1940-2026) was a German scientist who worked across theoretical biochemistry and nonlinear physics. Born in Berlin, he took his medical degree in 1966 and from 1969 was professor of theoretical biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, becoming professor of chemistry by decree in 1994. He is best known for chaos theory and the Rössler attractor, the strange attractor of a three-equation system that he described in a much-cited 1976 paper. He also wrote on endophysics and other speculative topics. The article records long disputes with his university over academic freedom and his involvement in a failed 2008 lawsuit seeking to halt the Large Hadron Collider because of a feared risk of mini black holes, a fear that physicists such as Hermann Nicolai rejected. He died in October 2026.