Professor Lothar Jaenicke, formerly University of Cologne, Germany, has passed away on December 29, 2015. The biochemist was known as an outstanding writer and a true intellectual.

 

Lothar Jaenicke, born September 14, 1923 in Berlin, obtained his Physicum in 1947 and the Diploma and PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Hans Meerwein in 1948 from the University of Marburg, Germany. Immediately after completing his habilitation in 1954, he joined the group of H. G. Wood and G. R. Greenberg at the Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA, on a NSF stipend. Upon return to Germany, he worked with F. Lynen at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1957–1962. In 1963, he was appointed Full Professor at the University of Cologne, where he remained until his retirement in 1988.

Among other honors, Professor Jaenicke received the Paul-Ehrlich-und-Ludwig-Darmstädter-Preis in 1962, the Otto-Warburg-Medaille of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) in 1979, and the Richard-Kuhn-Medaille of the GDCh in 1984. Professor Jaenicke was a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste, and corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He was Editor of the Biochemische Zeitschrift, Naturwissenschaften, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, and Chemie in unserer Zeit. He was founding member of the journal Biospektrum.

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Selected Publications

• Lothar Jaenicke, Die Ammoniak-Brennstoffzelle wird Reaktor, Chem. unserer Zeit 2015, 49 (1), 11. DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201590000
• Lothar Jaenicke, Einfacher Weg zu Chromanol-Antioxidantien, Chem. unserer Zeit 2014, 48 (5), 330. DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201490060
• Lothar Jaenicke, Profile der Zellbiologie, S. Hirzel, Stuttgart, Germany, 2010. ISBN 978-3-777-61693-3
• Lothar Jaenicke, Profile der Biochemie, Hirzel, Stuttgart, Germany 2007. ISBN: 978-3-777-61517-2
• Lothar Jaenicke, Biochemistry of differentiation and morphogenesis, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 1982. ISBN: 978-3-642-68835-5
• Wilhelm Boland, Lothar Jaenicke, Stereoselective syntheses of “multifidenes” and related structures. Contribution to the synthetic chemistry of cis-disubstituted alken-1-ylcyclopentenes, J. Org. Chem. 1979, 44 (26), 4819–4824.
  DOI: 10.1021/jo00394a016
• Ulrich Ewers, Harald Günther, Lothar Jaenicke, Covalent Hydration—New Results Using ¹³C-NMR Spectroscopy, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1975, 14 (5), 354–355. DOI: 10.1002/anie.197503541
• Lothar Jaenicke, Biochemistry of sensory functions, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 1974. ISBN: 978-3-642-66014-6
• Harold Rüdiger, Lothar Jaenicke, Methionine Synthetase, Europ. J. Biochem. 1970, 16 (1), 92–95. DOI: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1970.tb01057.x
• August-Wilhelm Wahlefeld, Lothar Jaenicke, Günter Hein, Modelluntersuchungen zur Funktion der Tetrahydropterine als Cofaktoren biologischer Hydroxylierungen, Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 1968, 715 (1), 52–67. DOI: 10.1002/jlac.19687150107
• Lothar Jaenicke, Egon Brode, Modelluntersuchungen zur biologischen Aktivierung der Einkohlenstoff-Einheiten, I N.N′-Diaryl-äthylendiamine als Modelle der Tetrahydrofolsäure in nicht-enzymatischen Reaktionen, Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 1959, 624 (1), 120–136. DOI: 10.1002/jlac.19596240111