Mohnen, Prof. Dr. Volker Armin
GERMANY — Longtime Capital District resident Volker Mohnen, 85, passed away in Germany on June 5 2022. Volker was an American and German research scientist and educator born on March 11, 1937, in Germany, the son of Otto and Maria (Gerstl) Mohnen.
Volker received a Bachelor of Science from University Karlsruhe in 1958. He met his future wife Ilsa in West Berlin just before the city was divided by the Berlin wall, marrying her in 1963. He became an instructor and research associate at University of Munich, receiving a Master of Sciences in 1963, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in 1966. Volker then came to the U.S. as a research associate in the newly-established Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the State University of New York at Albany. During an illustrious career there, he matriculated to a senior research scientist and professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, eventually becoming ASRC Director.
In the early 1980s, Volker was selected as a member of a National Academy of Sciences Panel to advise the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about acid rain. Subsequently, he was one of five scientists selected to personally advise President Ronald Reagan and other executive branch officials about policies related to acid rain. During his 1983 visit with the President, Volker was personally offered jelly beans by Ronald Reagan from a jar on the White House office desk.
Volker was an avid aircraft pilot who regularly used his personal airplane to collect water from clouds and to study acid rain and atmospheric pollution throughout Upstate N.Y. and the Adirondacks. He was featured on PBS Nova Scientific television programs, where his innovative methods for collecting and analyzing cloud and rainwater were featured. After retiring from ASRC, Volker returned to Germany, where he maintained an active research program there tive research program there and at ASRC until shortly before his passing.
Dr. Mohnen was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an esteemed member of numerous national and international scientific societies including: the U.S. National Academy Sciences, the American Chemical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the American Physical Society, the Air and Waste Management Association, and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
Volker was predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Ilse, and is survived by his sons, Jorg and Heiner (Darko); and two grandsons, Julian and Niklas.
He will always be an inspiration to all whose lives he touched. Memorial services already occurred in Germany among his family and friends there.