Heinz Wolff, the scientist who presented BBC2’s long-running show The Great Egg Race, has died aged 89.
The German-born inventor and social reformer suffered heart failure on Friday, his family said in a statement released through Brunel University London.
Wolff, who moved to Brunel from the Medical Research Council in 1983, was a former adviser to the European Space Agency (ESA) and presented The Great Egg Race from 1977 to 1986.
His colleague and close friend Prof Ian Sutherland said: “Heinz was a most inventive and inspirational leader. There was nothing he loved more than having a team of people around him devising completely new ways of doing things.”
Wolff, his father and other relatives came to Britain as Jewish refugees in September 1939. They fled Berlin on the day the second orld war broke out, when he was 11.
He attended school in Oxford before working in haematology at the city’s Radcliffe Infirmary, where he invented a machine for counting patients’ blood cells, and graduated from University College London with a first-class degree in physiology and physics.
Colleagues at Brunel, where he was an emeritus professor working on a project aimed at addressing the care needs of older people, recalled his passion for practical jokes, including arriving at his 80th birthday party celebrations on a scooter propelled by fire extinguishers.
Wolff become known to British television audiences through The Great Egg Race, which encouraged teams to invent useful objects out of limited resources.
His on-screen career began with Richard Dimbleby on Panorama in 1966, when he produced a radio-telemetry pill that could measure pressure, temperature and acidity in the gut.
Alongside his regular television appearances, Wolff’s scientific endeavours continued to flourish.
He was made an honorary member of the ESA in 1975, and his research into how human beings could survive in hostile environments culminated in his co-founding Project Juno which, in 1991, led to Dr Helen Sharman becoming the first British astronaut and the 15th woman in space when she spent eight days in orbit on the Russian Mir space station.
He was also a strong supporter of local charities, including more than 25 years as a trustee and then life president of the Hillingdon Partnership Trust.
Prof Julia Buckingham, the vice-chancellor and president of Brunel, said: “Heinz’s remarkable intellect, ideas and enthusiasm combined to make him the sparkling scientist we will so fondly remember.
“He was a wonderful friend and supporter to staff and to students, and an inspiration to all of us.”
Wolff was married to Joan until her death in 2014, and had two sons and four grandchildren.