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The 18 seventh grade students obediently freeze for the
panoramic photo. The picture is done, so it is checked off the
list. But there is one last item on the agenda – launching rockets
in the open air. “OK, now, everyone be quiet.” Dirk Stiefs
stands in front of the exit in his white science coat. At 1.90 me-
tres, he towers over the teachers and students around him. “On
our way to the launch pad, I will stay in the front, and nobody
will run past me. The handcart is at the back of the line – nobody
should be behind it.” And then, a short pause, a meaningful
look. The announcement, intended as friendly, has made an im-
pact. In a relatively orderly fashion, they head to the open field
from which the homemade rockets will be shot into the sky.
Single-celled organisms as a model
The qualified physicist landed this job almost by accident.
“Actually I’m a kind of slime mould,” he says. A slime mould or
Eumycetozoa – consists of single-celled organisms that undergo
multiple different, morphologically extreme phases during the
course of their lives. Its physical appearance is inseparably linked
to its life cycle. Dirk Stiefs laughs as he compares himself to
slime mould. “Slime mould always grows where there is food.”
He spreads his hands. “It’s a good tactic,” he says, nodding en-
thusiastically. What he means is simple – he is open to new ide-
as, grasps opportunities when they arise, and is not attached to
tried and tested ways.
He studied physics because he could. Ultimately he com-
pleted advanced courses in physics and art at his secondary
school in Wilhelmshaven. He could have been a comic book art-
ist too, and illustrated a book while he was studying: ‘Why stu-
dents procrastinate: excuses for not-yet-writing research papers.’
But making a living through art did not exactly appeal to him.
He could even imagine not studying – and just becoming a bill-
PORTRAIT | DLR maGazıne 136 · 137 | 21
Making science fun
He would actually have been happy doing something artistic – being a graphic designer, for example. Or a billboard or ne-
on sign maker. But Dirk Stiefs is here, moving chairs back and forth in the DLR_School_Lab in Bremen – stacking them and
pushing them to the right there, and then putting them back. A photographer will soon be here to take a panoramic pic-
ture of the newest DLR_School_Lab. Everything must look exactly right for it – so the chairs are moved again, arranged
in a semicircle this time. Stiefs is the head of the school laboratory and, since April 2011, has been involved in rocket con-
struction and microgravity experiments, as well as small rovers that travel across artificial Martian landscapes – not art or
graphic design. No two days are alike for the team consisting of Dirk Stiefs, Silke Zierenberg and up to 15 students.
“Something new happens every day,” says the 33-year-old. And that makes him more than happy.
Dirk Stiefs finds his dream job at the DLR_School_Lab in Bremen
Dirk Stiefs is head of the new DLR_School_Lab in Bremen.
Together with his team, he has developed the experiments
for school groups.
Shortly before launch – the students use a
homemade rocket to learn how propulsion
systems work.
By Manuela Braun