Walter Greiner, a Pioneer in Super Heavy Element Research Historical Remarks and New Experimental Developments

With his theoretical work Walter Greiner pioneered super-heavy element research. He motivated the young scientists and actively shaped the profile of the Gesellschaft fur SchwerIonenforschung, GSI, Darmstadt. We are happy that still during his lifetime we at GSI could prove some of his predictions: Fusion with magic nuclei and super heavy elements, the nuclear species existing only by shell stabilization. With the discovery of oganesson, Z = 118, the heaviest element known today, we have come to the end of super heavy-element production by the fusion of magic nuclei. In-flight separation and new experimental developments including Walter Greiner’s new ideas for SHE synthesis will be discussed.