Widen Tabakoff, a Revolutionary of CEAS Aerospace Engineering, Passes Away at 95

Born in Bulgaria and educated in Germany, Widen Tabakoff first visited Cincinnati in 1957 after being invited by the U.S. Army to join Werner von Braun’s world-renowned team of rocket scientists. This team would develop Saturn 5 complex that would send Apollo 11 to the moon.

In 1958, while on duty with the U.S. Army, Tabakoff worked alongside the U.S. Army Engineering Division Laboratory testing materials for use in the nozzle of the Saturn V complex, when he first became acquainted with University of Cincinnati faculty. Professor Ray Murray, the acting department head for aerospace, jumped at the opportunity to incorporate Tabakoff’s wealth of knowledge into the university by offering him a position. He full-heartedly accepted and began to lay the groundwork for why the aerospace department is what it is today.

In the midst of supporting a great number of graduate students’ research, Tabakoff created the College of Engineering and Applied Science Engineering Research Center’s (ERC) first gas dynamic & propulsion laboratories’ infrastructure that is still in use today.

Professor Awatef Hamed speaks about her mentor then colleague and dear friend Widen Tabakoff, and of his momentous contributions to CEAS, “He was an incredibly talented engineer and innovative scientist. Even though internationally recognized for his propulsion and space research, he was modest and very generous to all, from students to colleagues and collaborators. He established the gas and propulsions laboratory and encouraged everybody, students, faculty, and partners from industry and government to utilize it.”