Biography:Gerd Sommerhoff
Gerd Sommerhoff OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 13, 1915 Wiesbaden, Germany |
| Died | April 28, 2002 (aged 87) Cambridge, England, UK |
| Relatives | Robert Schumann (great-grandfather) Clara Schumann (great-grandmother) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Zurich Polytechnic University of Oxford |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Dragon School Sevenoaks School |
Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff OBE (February 13, 1915 – April 28, 2002) was a secondary school science teacher in the UK and an author who focused on neuroscience.
Early life and family
Sommerhoff and his twin sister were born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Elizabeth Ruher and Walter Georg Sommerhoff, a wealthy banker who was born in New York to German merchant Arthur Louis Carl Sommerhoff (1844-1911) and his wife piano teacher Elise, née Schumann (1843–1928), the second child of Robert and Clara Schumann. Sommerhoff was a great-grandson of the German composers Robert Schumann and his wife Clara. The Sommerhoff family resided in Haarlem, Netherlands, until the loss of the family fortune in the Wall Street crash and the death of their father "in compromising circumstances".[1] The two younger children moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in 1931 with their mother Elizabeth Sommerhoff when she married Major Bernard Francis Anne Vernon-Harcourt, while their elder brother, Walter Hans Sommerhoff, emigrated to Santiago, Chile. Sommerhoff studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ETH Zurich) and philosophy, politics and economics at University of Oxford. Sommerhoff was interned in Canada as an enemy alien until 1942.[2][non-primary source needed]
Career
Upon release from internment, Sommerhoff taught science at the Dragon School.[3] While there, he used boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects.[4][self-published source?] He presented science programmes for the BBC from 1960–1962 before being recruited to Sevenoaks School in 1963 by the headmaster Kim Taylor.[5] His students included Tim Hunt[6] and Alan Macfarlane.[4][self-published source?]
Child sexual abuse
Alice Hemmings reported allegations of sexual abuse dating from 1976 in The Sevenoaks Chronicle. The assault was reported to the Kent Police force by Stuart Neilson in 2012.[7] Sommerhoff was also alleged to have displayed pornography to pupils and to have made obscene remarks including boasts of bestiality. Sevenoaks School agreed to settle a compensation claim by another pupil alleging sexual abuse by Sommerhoff at Sevenoaks School when he was 12 years old. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Tracey Emmett, "Sommerhoff’s abuse may have been suspected by those who worked with him."[8] Several further witnesses and victims have subsequently been identified, indicating that Sommerhoff was a preferential paedophile attracted to pubescent boys.[9]
Works
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1950) (in en). Analytical Biology. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1DwAAAAMAAJ.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1974). Logic of the living brain. London: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-81305-2. OCLC 1014323.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1990). Life, brain, and consciousness : new perceptions through targeted systems analysis. Amsterdam: North-Holland. ISBN 0-444-88436-X. OCLC 20634326.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd; MacDorman, Karl (1994). "An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences". Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science 29 (2): 151–181. doi:10.1007/BF02691012. PMID 7947330.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (2000). Understanding consciousness : its function and brain processes. London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-85702-649-1. OCLC 646067977.[10]
References
- ↑ Gerd Sommerhoff, Obituary, The Times, Friday 17 May 2002
- ↑ "Richard Brown Baker family papers". https://www.rihs.org/mssinv/mss1117.htm.
- ↑ "Intellectual Autobiography". Metaphysics, soul, and ethics in ancient thought : themes from the work of Richard Sorabji. Ricardo Salles. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2005. ISBN 1-4237-8866-4. OCLC 70296478.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "J Paul Morrison :: Biography". https://jpaulm.github.io/index.html.
- ↑ Scragg, Brian (1993). Sevenoaks School : a history. Bath: Ashgrove Press Limited. ISBN 1-85398-063-3. OCLC 1108920922.
- ↑ "Tim Hunt - Biographical". 2001. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/hunt-bio.html.
- ↑ Hemmings, Alice (8 November 2012). "Dead Sevenoaks teacher Gerd Sommerhoff accused of sexual abuse". Sevenoaks Chronicle. http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Dead-Sevenoaks-teacher-Gerd-Sommerhoff-accused/story-17263435-detail/story.html. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ↑ Doran, Sean-Paul (7 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School settles sex abuse case out of court". Sevenoaks Chronicle. http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sevenoaks-School-settles-sex-abuse-case-court/story-20048271-detail/story.html.
- ↑ Doran, Sean-Paul (18 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School teacher had 'six more victims' of sex abuse, claims accuser". Sevenoaks Chronicle. http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sommerhoff-abuse/story-20094871-detail/story.html.
- ↑ Review: Cole, Jonathan (2003-12-31). "Review of Sommerhoff (2000): Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes" (in en). Pragmatics & Cognition 11 (2): 394–404. doi:10.1075/pc.11.2.13col. ISSN 0929-0907. http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/pc.11.2.13col.
Further reading
- "Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002)". Kybernetes 34 (5). 1 June 2005. doi:10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007. ISSN 0368-492X.
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