Vita

Manfred Eigen

Born: May 9, 1927 in Bochum (Germany)

Deceased: February 6, 2019 in Göttingen (Germany)

Professional Record

1945 - 1950	Study of physics and chemistry in Göttingen (supervisor of doctoral thesis: Arnold Eucken)
1951	Dr. rer. nat. (physical chemistry)
1951 - 1953	Research associate at the Institute for Physical Chemistry, University of Göttingen
1953	Assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry, Göttingen (with Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer)
1958	Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society
1962	Head of the independent department “Chemical Kinetics” at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry (now: Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry)
1964	Director at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry (now: Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry)
1997	Director Emeritus

Research Interests

Mechanics of biochemical reactions:
enzyme kinetics, code reading, biopolymerisation, sequential kinetics
Molecular self-organization: origin and evolution of life (theory and experiments)
Evolutionary biotechnology

Prizes and Awards

1956	Bodenstein Prize of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry
1962	Otto Hahn-Prize for Chemistry and Physics
1965	Kirkwood Medal (American Chemical Society)
1966	Harrison Howe-Prize (American Chemical Society)
1967	Nobel Prize in Chemistry Linus Pauling Medal (American Chemical Society)
1968	Carus Medal of the German Academy of Natural Scientists LEOPOLDINA, Halle Carus Prize of the town of Schweinfurt Paracelsus Medal of the Swiss Chemical Society
1969	Keilin Medal (Biochemical Society, Great Britain)
1971	Intra-Science Award (Intra-Science Research Foundation, Santa Monica)
1972	Order of the "Palmes Académiques"
1973	Order of the "Orden pour le mèrite"
1976	Austrian Decoration for Arts and Sciences
1977	Faraday Medal (Chemical Society, London)
1980	Prize of the Federal State of Lower Saxony
1982	Medal of the Government of Lower Saxony in Hanover
1992	Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstädter Prize
1994	Hermann von Helmholtz-Medal of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, Berlin Literature Prize of the Fund of the Chemical Industry, Frankfurt/Main Karl Küpfmüller-Ring of the Technical University of Darmstadt Ciba Drew Prize of the Drew University, Madison, N.Y., USA Max Planck Research Award
1995	Fogarty Lecture, Bethesda, USA
1996	Walker-Ames Professorship, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Merck Prize, Darmstadt
1997	Rudolf Diesel Medal, Gladbeck
2005	Lifetime Achievement Award of the Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore, USA
2007	Goethe Medal of the Goethe Society, Weimar
2010	Election into the “Hall of Fame der deutschen Forschung”
2011	Wilhelm Exner Medal of the Wilhelm Exner Medaillen Stiftung

Honorary Degrees and Memberships

1964	Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, USA
1965	Honorary Professor, Technical University of Braunschweig, Faculty of Sciences
1965 - 1971	Andrew D White Professor at Large, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
1966	Dr. of Science h.c., Washington University, St. Louis, USA Dr. of Science h.c., Harvard University, USA Dr. of Science h.c., University of Chicago, USA Honorary Member of the American Association of Biological Chemists Honorary Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
1968	Dr. of Science h.c., University of Nottingham, England
1969	Foreign Honorary Member of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
1970	Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
1971	Honorary Professor, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Medicine
1973	Dr. phil. h.c., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
1974	Honorary Member of the Indian Chemical Society
1976	Dr. of Science h.c., University of Hull, England Honorary Member of the American Chemical Society (on the occasion of the centenary)
1978	Dr. of Science h.c., University of Bristol, England
1979	Honorary Member of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry
1981	Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, England
1982	Dr. h.c., University of Debrecen, Hungary Dr. of Science h.c., University of Cambridge, England
1983	Dr. rer nat. h.c., Technical University of Munich Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland
1985	Dr. rer. nat. h.c., University of Bielefeld
1986	Honorary Member of the German Society for Biophysics
1987	Honorary Senator of the Georg August University of Göttingen
1990	Dr. of Science h.c., University of Utah, Logan, USA Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1992	Honorary Member of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Honorary Member of the German Society for the Advancement of Medicine
1997	Dr. h.c., University of Alicante, Spain
2001	Honorary Member of the Ruhr University of Bochum
2002	Honorary Citizen of the town of Göttingen
2007	Dr. h.c., University of Coimbra, Portugal
2011	Honorary Degree, Scripps Institute of Research, USA

Presidencies, Senates and Councils

1968	Member of the Board of Directors of BASF (until 1998) Member of the EMBO Council (until 1973)
1969	Chairman of the EMBO Council (until 1971)
1980	Member of the Senate of the Max Planck Society (until 1990)
1982	President of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (until 1993)
1984	Member of the Balzan Prize Committee Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland

Scientific Memberships and Functions

1962	Member of the German Society of Scientists and Physicians
1964	Member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists LEOPOLDINA, Halle
1965	Member of the Academy of Sciences, Göttingen
1966	Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., USA
1968	Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, USA Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, USA
1970	Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
1971	Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, Denmark
1972	Member of the Royal Society of Arts, London, England Corresponding Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich
1973	Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London, England
1976	Foreign Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now: Russian Academy of Sciences)
1977	Member of the “Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique” Corresponding Member of the Senckenberg Natural History Society, Frankfurt
1978	Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences “Institut de France”, Paris, France
1979	Member of the Goethe Society, Weimar
1981	Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Rome, Italy
1985	Member of the “Salk Institute's Society of Honorary Fellows”, USA
1990	Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin
1992	Member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Member for the Walter Siegenthaler Society for the advancement in inner medicine
1993	Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, Berlin
2005	Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Brussels, Belgium Member of the “International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life“