Helmut (Heli) Wopfner (June 26, 1924 in Innsbruck – May 19, 2021[1]) was an Austrian geologist and professor at the University of Cologne (Institute of Geology and Mineralogy).
After being captured by the British in northern Germany, he spent 11 months in various prisoner-of-war camps in Belgium until his release in March 1946, when he enrolled in geology studies at the University of Innsbruck.
After his marriage (1955), he and the family left Europe (April 1956) to take up an assignment with Santos in Adelaide under a four-year contract with Geosurveys of Australia Ltd.
[3] He continued working as a consultant for the Western Mining Corporation and returned to Australia every year until 1982.
Prof. Wopfner's research at the University of Cologne focused on the economic potential, the tectonic-sedimentary facies and the palaeoclimatic development of Permian-Triassic depositional sequences of Gondwana and Gondwana-derived areas.