Stuttgart/Berlin, March 14, 2024 – The heureka Foundation for Mobility and Environmental Protection honors Prof. Dr. Adolf Müller-Hellmann’s liftetime achievements and in particular his pioneering contributions to the promotion of electric mobility in public transport with the Life Time Award.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Müller-Hellmann is known as a pioneer of electric bus technology. He is one of the initiators of the electric bus conference, which was held for the first time in 2010 and has established itself as a major meeting place for the industry. Since 2015, the conference has been supplemented by the “ElekBu” fair (since 2024 “mobility move”), which is the world's largest fair for electric mobility in public transport. The technical advancement and the introduction of electric buses in Germany is largely due to his tireless commitment.
As managing director of technology and later also as general manager of the Association of German Public Transport Companies (VDV), he promoted topics such as the standardization of vehicles, European standardization, the use of lightweight and low-floor vehicles, tunnel construction, the integration of regional and urban transport, and environmental protection. He is known in the professional world for the “BOStrab revision” and for the “Blue Books” published by the VDV, which still serve as reference works today.
In 1987, Adolf Müller-Hellmann received his first teaching position at RWTH for the lecture “Electric Public Transport Systems”, and in 1995 he was appointed as an honorary professor.
Adolf Müller-Hellmann is recognized for his pursuit of innovative technical solutions to make public transport better and more environmentally friendly. He is the first to identify groundbreaking technologies and promotes their development and dissemination. He inspires others with his visionary power, convinces them, and ultimately motivates them to act.
The heureka foundation honors Prof. Dr.-Ing. Adolf Müller-Hellmann with the Life Time Award 2024. In this way, the foundation acclaims his commitment and successes in creating an environmentally friendly and attractive public transport.
Adolf Müller-Hellmann studied general electrical engineering and electrical energy engineering at RWTH Aachen University and received his doctorate there in 1979. At the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) he initially worked as head of the railway technology department, then from 1991 as managing director of technology and from 1998 to 2008 also as general manager. Adolf Müller-Hellmann is a recipient of Germany‘s Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class.
