{{Short description|German physicist (1914–2017)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Expand German|topic=bio|Heinz Billing|date=December 2013}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Heinz Billing | image = Heinz Billing-2012.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = Heinz Billing in 2012 | birth_date = 7 April 1914 | birth_place = [[Salzwedel]], [[Saxony-Anhalt]], [[Germany]] | death_date = 4 January 2017 (aged 102) | death_place = [[Garching bei München]], [[Bavaria]], Germany | fields = [[Physics]]<br /> [[Computer science]]<br /> Experimental Gravitation | alma_mater = [[University of Göttingen]] | doctoral_advisor = [[Walter Gerlach]]<br />[[Eduard Rüchardt]] | workplaces = Aerodynamic Test Centre at Göttingen<ref name="IEEE"/><br />[[Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics]]<br />[[Max Planck Institute for Physics]] | awards = [[Konrad Zuse Medal]] (1987) | known_for = Prototype laser [[interferometric gravitational wave detector]]<br />[[Data storage device]] }} '''Heinz Billing''' (7 April 1914 – 4 January 2017) was a German physicist and computer scientist, widely considered a pioneer in the construction of computer systems and [[computer data storage]], who built a prototype laser [[interferometric gravitational wave detector]].<ref name="IEEE">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/computerpioneers0000leej|title=Computer pioneers|section=Heinz Billing|author=J. A. N. Lee|year=1995|isbn=0-8186-6357-X|publisher=[[IEEE Computer Society]]|access-date=21 February 2016|url-access=registration}}</ref>
== Biography == Billing was born in Salzwedel, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. After studying mathematics and physics in University of Göttingen he received his doctorate in 1938 in Munich at the age of 24. During the [[Second World War]] he worked in the [[Aerodynamics Research Institute]] in Göttingen.
On 3 October 1943 he married Anneliese Oetker. Billing has three children: Heiner Erhard Billing (born 18 November 1944 in Salzwedel), Dorit Gerda Gronefeld Billing (born 27 June 1946 in Göttingen) and Arend Gerd Billing (born 19 September 1954 in Göttingen).
He [[centenarian|turned 100]] in April 2014<ref name="geo600">{{cite web |title=Computer and gravitational wave astronomy pioneer Heinz Billing celebrates his 100th birthday |url=http://www.geo600.org/1252837/Heinz_Billing_100 |work=Benjamin Knispel |publisher=GEO600.org |date=7 April 2014 |access-date=11 June 2016 |archive-date=21 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421061932/http://www.geo600.org/1252837/Heinz_Billing_100 }}</ref><ref name="100thbirthday">{{cite web |title=Computerpionier Heinz Billing feiert 100. Geburtstag |url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Computerpionier-Heinz-Billing-feiert-100-Geburtstag-2164603.html |website=heise online |language=de |author=Detlef Borchers |date=7 April 2014 |access-date=21 February 2016}}</ref> and died on 4 January 2017 at the age of 102.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bild.de/regional/aktuelles/bayern/computerpionier-heinz-billing-ist-tot-49653080.bild.html |title=Computerpionier Heinz Billing ist tot |date=1 August 2017 |language=de |website=Bild}}</ref> [[LIGO|Advanced LIGO]] detected the fourth gravitational wave event [[GW170104]] on the same day.<ref name="Abbott2017">{{cite journal |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.221101 |pmid=28621973 |doi-access=free |title=GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2 |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] |date=1 June 2017 |author=B. P. Abbott |display-authors=etal |collaboration=[[LIGO Scientific Collaboration]] and [[Virgo interferometer|Virgo Collaboration]] |volume=118 |issue=22 |article-number=221101 |arxiv=1706.01812 |bibcode = 2017PhRvL.118v1101A }}</ref>
==Computer science== Billing worked at the Aerodynamic Research Institute in [[Göttingen]], where he developed a [[magnetic drum memory]].
According to Billing's memoirs, published by Genscher, Düsseldorf (1997), there was a meeting between [[Alan Turing]] and [[Konrad Zuse]].<ref name="leeds">{{cite web|url=http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf|title=Did Alan Turing interrogate Konrad Zuse in Göttingen in 1947?|author=Herbert Bruderer|access-date=21 February 2016|archive-date=21 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521211106/http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf}}</ref> It took place in [[Göttingen]] in 1947. The interrogation had the form of a colloquium. Participants were [[John R. Womersley|Womersley]], Turing, Porter from England and a few German researchers like Zuse, Walther, and Billing. (For more details see Herbert Bruderer, ''Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz'').
After a brief stay at the [[University of Sydney]], Billing returned to join the [[Max Planck Institute for Physics]] in 1951. From 1952 through 1961 the group under Billing's direction constructed a series of four digital computers: the G1, G2, G1a, and G3.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rojas |first1=Raúl |last2=Hashagen |first2=Ulf |title=The First Computers: History and Architectures |date=2002 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-68137-7 |pages=295,312 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nDWPW9uwZPAC&q=%22G3%22+computer&pg=PA295 |language=en |chapter=The G1 and the Göttingen Family of Digital Computers}}</ref>
He is the designer of the first German sequence-controlled electronic digital computer as well as of the first German stored-program electronic digital computer.<ref name="leeds"/>
==Gravitational wave detector== After transistors had been firmly established, when microelectronics arrived, after scientific computers were slowly overshadowed by commercial applications and computers were mass-produced in factories, Heinz Billing left the computer field in which he had been a pioneer for nearly 30 years.<ref name="IEEE"/>
In 1972, Billing returned to his original field of physics, at the Max Planck Institute's new location at Garching near Munich.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://joern.de/Billing.pdf |title=Wer? |trans-title=Who? (Heinz Billing on magnetic storage drum) |language=de }}</ref> Beginning in 1972, Heinz Billing became involved in gravitational physics, when he tried to verify the detection claims made by American physicist [[Joseph Weber]]. Weber's results were considered to be proven wrong by these experiments.<ref name="geo600"/>
In 1975, Billing acted on a proposal by [[Rainer Weiss]] from the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) to use laser interferometry to detect gravitational waves. He and colleagues built a 3m prototype Michelson interferometer using optical delay lines.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Laser interferometry for the detection of gravitational waves|author1=Jim Hough |author2-link=Sheila Rowan (physicist) |author2=Sheila Rowan |journal=Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics|url=http://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/Compact/hough05.pdf|year=2005|volume=7|issue=6 |page=S257–S264|doi=10.1088/1464-4258/7/6/001|bibcode=2005JOptA...7S.257H}}</ref> From 1980 onward Billing commissioned the development and construction in MPA in Garching of a laser interferometer with an arm length of 30m. The knowledge gained from this prototype was crucial to beginning the LIGO project.<ref name="geo600"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.mit.edu/2016/rainer-weiss-ligo-origins-0211|title=Q&A: Rainer Weiss on LIGO's origins|date=11 February 2016 |publisher=news.mit.edu|access-date=21 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=In memoriam Jürgen Ehlers|url=http://priorwww.aei.mpg.de/ehlers/en/RedeRuediger.pdf|author=Albrecht Rüdiger|publisher=aei.mpg.de|access-date=21 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221033028/http://priorwww.aei.mpg.de/ehlers/en/RedeRuediger.pdf|archive-date=21 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=An argon laser interferometer for the detection of gravitational radiation|author1=H. Billing |author2=K. Maischberger |author3=A. Rüdiger |author4=R. Schilling |author5=L. Schnupp |author6=W. Winkler |journal=Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments|year=1979|volume=12|issue=11|pages=1043–1050 |doi=10.1088/0022-3735/12/11/010|bibcode=1979JPhE...12.1043B}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Noise behavior of the Garching 30-meter prototype gravitational-wave detector|author1=D. Shoemaker |author2=R. Schilling |author3=L. Schnupp |author4=W. Winkler |author5=K. Maischberger |author6=A. Rüdiger |journal=Phys. Rev. D|year=1988|volume=38|issue=2|pages=423–432|doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.38.423|pmid=9959159 |bibcode=1988PhRvD..38..423S}}</ref>
==Awards and honors== In 1987, Heinz Billing received the [[Konrad Zuse Medal]] for the invention of [[Drum memory|magnetic drum storage]]. In 2015 he received the [[Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]].
In 1993, the annual [[Heinz Billing prize]] for "outstanding contributions to computational science" was established by the [[Max Planck Society]] in his honor, with a prize amount of 5,000 Euro.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Heinz Billing Prize for the Advancement of Scientific computing|publisher=MPG|url=http://www.billingpreis.mpg.de/}}</ref>
== Selected publications == * Heinz Billing: ''Ein Interferenzversuch mit dem Lichte eines Kanalstrahles.'' J. A. Barth, Leipzig 1938. * Heinz Billing, Wilhelm Hopmann: ''Mikroprogramm-Steuerwerk.'' In: ''Elektronische Rundschau.'' Heft 10, 1955. * Heinz Billing, Albrecht Rüdiger: ''Das Parametron verspricht neue Möglichkeiten im Rechenmaschinenbau.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 1, Heft 3, 1959. * Heinz Billing: ''Lernende Automaten.'' Oldenbourg Verlag, München 1961. * Heinz Billing: ''Die im MPI für Physik und Astrophysik entwickelte Rechenanlage G3.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 5, Heft 2, 1961. * Heinz Billing: ''Magnetische Stufenschichten als Speicherelemente.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 5, Heft 6, 1963. * Heinz Billing: ''Schnelle Rechenmaschinenspeicher und ihre Geschwindigkeits- und Kapazitätsgrenzen.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 5, Heft 2, 1963. * Heinz Billing, Albrecht Rüdiger, Roland Schilling: ''BRUSH – Ein Spezialrechner zur Spurerkennung und Spurverfolgung in Blasenkammerbildern.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 11, Heft 3, 1969. * Heinz Billing: ''Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der digitalen Speicher.'' In: ''eR – Elektronische Rechenanlagen.'' Band 19, Heft 5, 1977. * Heinz Billing: ''A wide-band laser interferometer for the detection of gravitational radiation.'' progress report, Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik, München 1979. * Heinz Billing: ''Die Göttinger Rechenmaschinen G1, G2, G3.'' In: ''Entwicklungstendenzen wissenschaftlicher Rechenzentren, Kolloquium, Göttingen.'' Springer, Berlin 1980, {{ISBN|3-540-10491-7}}. * Heinz Billing: ''The Munich gravitational wave detector using laser interferometry.'' Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik, München 1982. * Heinz Billing: ''Die Göttinger Rechenmaschinen G1, G2 und G3.'' In: ''MPG-Spiegel.'' 4, 1982. * Heinz Billing: ''Meine Lebenserinnerungen.'' Selbstverlag, 1994. * Heinz Billing: ''Ein Leben zwischen Forschung und Praxis.'' Selbstverlag F. Genscher, Düsseldorf 1997. * Heinz Billing: ''Fast memories for computers and their limitations regarding speed and capacity (Schnelle Rechenmaschinen- speicher und ihre Geschwindigkeits- und Kapazitätsgrenzen).'' In: ''IT – Information Technology.'' Band 50, Heft 5, 2008.
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.mpg.de/9939945/gravitational-waves-tremble Tracking down the gentle tremble] at [[Max-Planck-Gesellschaft]]'s website on account history of [[GEO600]] with Heinz Billing. {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Billing, Heinz}} [[Category:1914 births]] [[Category:2017 deaths]] [[Category:People from Salzwedel]] [[Category:Scientists from the Province of Saxony]] [[Category:German computer scientists]] [[Category:20th-century German physicists]] [[Category:Gravitational-wave astronomers]] [[Category:Max Planck Society people]] [[Category:German men centenarians]] [[Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]] [[Category:Max Planck Institute directors]]