Manfred Eigen, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, celebrates his 90th birthday on May 9, 2017.
Eigen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967 together with Ronald G. W. Norrish and George Porter “for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy”. His research interests include reaction kinetics, biophysical chemistry, and evolutionary biotechnology.
Manfred Eigen studied physics and chemistry at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. in 1951. In 1953, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry, Göttingen. In 1964, he became Head of the Department for Chemical Kinetics and in 1967, he was appointed Director of the Institute. From 1971 until his retirement in 1995, he was Head of the Biochemical Kinetics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, which had been created in the same year. He founded two biotechnology companies, Evotec AG, Hamburg, Germany, and DIREVO Biosystems AG, Cologne, Germany.
Besides the Nobel Prize and among many other honors, Eigen received the Otto-Hahn-Prize for Chemistry and Physics in 1962, the Helmholtz Medal from the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1994, and the Wilhelm Exner Medal from the Austrian Industry Association in 2011. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Selected Publications
- Molecular Quasi-Species,
M. Eigen, J. McCaskill, P. Schuster,
J. Phys. Chem. 1988, 92, 6881–6891.
DOI: 10.1021/j100335a010 - Proton Transfer, Acid-Base Catalysis, and Enzymatic Hydrolysis. Part I: Elementary Processes,
M. Eigen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1964, 3, 1–19.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.196400011 - Elementary Steps in Enzyme Reactions (as Studied by Relaxation Spectrometry),
M. Eigen, G. Hammes,
Adv. Enzymol. Relat. Areas Mol. Biol., 1963, 25, 1–38.
DOI: 10.1002/9780470122709 - The Kinetics of Halogen Hydrolysis,
M. Eigen, K. Kustin,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1962, 84, 1355–1361.
DOI: 10.1021/ja00867a005 - Schallabsorption in Elektrolytlösungen als Folge chemischer Relaxation II. Meßergebnisse und Relaxationsmechanismen für 2—2-wertige Elektrolyte (in German),
M. Eigen, K. Tamm,
Ber. Bunsen-Ges. 1962, 66, 107–121.
DOI: 10.1002/bbpc.19620660206 - Methods for investigation of ionic reactions in aqueous solutions with half-times as short as 10–9 sec. Application to neutralization and hydrolysis reactions,
M. Eigen,
Discuss. Faraday Soc. 1954, 17, 194–205.
DOI: 10.1039/df9541700194 - Über die Kinetik sehr schnell verlaufender Ionenreaktionen in wässeriger Lösung,
M. Eigen,
Z. Phys. Chem. 1954, 1, 176–200.
DOI: 10.1524/zpch.1954.1.3_4.176