Manfred Eigen

Dutch Queen Beatrix meets five Nobel prize winners (1983): Paul Berg, Christian de Duve, Steven Weinberg, Manfred Eigen & Nicolaas Bloembergen

Manfred Eigen (Template:IPA; 9 May 1927 – 6 February 2019) was a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry<ref name=nobel>Template:Citation</ref> for work on measuring fast chemical reactions.<ref name=":0">Template:Citation</ref>

Eigen's research helped solve major problems in physical chemistry and aided in the understanding of chemical processes that occur in living organisms.

In later years, he explored the biochemical roots of life and evolution. He worked to install a multidisciplinary program at the Max Planck Institute to study the underpinnings of life at the molecular level. His work was hailed for creating a new scientific and technological discipline: evolutionary biotechnology.<ref name=BG/>

Education and early life

Eigen was born on 9 May 1927 in Bochum,<ref name=":1">Template:Citation</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Citation</ref> the son of Ernst and Hedwig (Feld) Eigen, a chamber musician.<ref name="Nobel_biographical"/> As a child he developed a deep passion for music, and studied piano.<ref name=BG/>

World War II interrupted his formal education. At age fifteen he was drafted into service in a German antiaircraft unit. He was captured by the Americans toward the end of the war.<ref name="WoS">Template:Cite web</ref> He managed to escape (he said later that escape was relatively easy),<ref name=BG/> and walked hundreds of miles across defeated Germany, arriving in Göttingen in 1945. He lacked the necessary documentation for acceptance to university,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but was admitted after he demonstrated his knowledge in an exam. He entered the university's first postwar class.

Eigen desired to study physics, but since returning soldiers who were enrolled previously received priority, he enrolled in Geophysics. He earned an undergraduate degree and began graduate study in natural sciences. One of his advisors was Werner Heisenberg, the noted proponent of the uncertainty principle.<ref name=BG/> He received his doctorate in 1951.

Career and research

Eigen received his Ph.D. at the University of Göttingen in 1951 under supervision of Arnold Eucken.<ref name=mathgene/> In 1964 he presented the results of his research at a meeting of the Faraday Society in London. His findings demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to determine the rates of chemical reactions that occurred during time intervals as brief as a nanosecond.Template:Citation needed

Beginning in 1953 Eigen worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in Göttingen, becoming its director in 1964 and joining it with the Max Planck Institute for Spectroscopy to become the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. He was an honorary professor of the Braunschweig University of Technology. From 1982 to 1993, Eigen was president of the German National Merit Foundation. Eigen was a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 1967, Eigen was awarded, along with Ronald George Wreyford Norrish<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and George Porter,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They were cited for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions induced in response to very short pulses of energy.

In addition, Eigen's name is linked with the theory of quasispecies, the error threshold, error catastrophe, Eigen's paradox, and the chemical hypercycle, the cyclic linkage of reaction cycles as an explanation for the self-organization of prebiotic systems, which he described with Peter Schuster in 1977.<ref>Eigen & Schuster (1977) The Hypercycle. A Principle of Natural Self-Organisation. Part A: Emergence of the Hypercycle. Naturwissenschaften Vol. 64, pp. 541–565.</ref><ref>Eigen & Schuster (1978) The Hypercycle. A Principle of Natural Self-Organisation. Part B: The Abstract Hypercycle Template:Webarchive. Naturwissenschaften Vol. 65, pp. 7–41.</ref><ref>Eigen & Schuster (1978) The Hypercycle. A Principle of Natural Self-Organisation. Part C: The Realistic Hypercycle Template:Webarchive. Naturwissenschaften Vol. 65, pp. 341–369.</ref><ref>Manfred Eigen and Peter Schuster The Hypercycle: A principle of natural self-organization, 1979, Springer Template:ISBN</ref>

Eigen founded two biotechnology companies, Evotec and Direvo.<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1981, Eigen became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Eigen was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences even though he was an atheist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He died on 6 February 2019 at the age of 91.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Eigen was married to Elfriede Müller.<ref name="Nobel_biographical" /> The union produced two children, a boy and a girl.<ref name="Nobel_biographical" /> He later married Ruthild Winkler-Oswatitsch, a longtime scientific partner.<ref name=BG>Template:Cite news</ref>

Honours and awards

Eigen won numerous awards for his research including:

• Otto Hahn Prize (1962)<ref name=planck>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1964)<ref name=":0" />
• Elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1966)<ref name=":1" />
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1967), shared with Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter, for his studies on the kinetics of extremely fast running chemical reactions with relaxation methods<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Elected a member of the American Philosophical Society (1968)<ref name=":2" />
• Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences) (1976)<ref name=academia>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1973<ref name=formemrs/>
• Pour le Mérite (1973)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Faraday Lectureship Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1977<ref name=cv/>
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Lower Saxony State Prize for Science (1980)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1992)<ref name=planck/>
• Helmholtz Medal (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994)<ref name=academia/>
• Max Planck Research Award (1994), jointly with Rudolf Rigler of the Karolinska Institute<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Honorary member of the Ruhr University Bochum (2001)<ref name=cv>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore (2005)<ref name=planck/>
• Wilhelm Exner Medal (2011)<ref>Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.</ref>

Honorary doctorates

He received 15 honorary doctorates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• Honorary Professor, Technical University of Braunschweig (1965)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from Harvard University (1966)<ref name="Nobel_biographical">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Honorary doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis (1966)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago (1966)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham (1968)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary Professor, University of Göttingen (1971)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1973)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Hull (1976)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol (1978)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Debrecen (1982)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge (1982)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from Technical University of Munich (1983)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Bielefeld (1985)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from Utah State University (1990)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Alicante (1990)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2007)<ref name=cv />
• Honorary Degree, Scripps Institute of Research (2011)<ref name=cv />

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
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• Manfred Eigen tells his life story at Web of Stories (video)
• Interview with Manfred Eigen by Harry Kroto, NL Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust.
• "Falls ein Gott die Naturgesetze erschuf, so erschuf er auch das Leben durch Evolution" (in German) Interview with Manfred Eigen from 2004, Archive

Further reading

Obituaries

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External links

• "The institute congratulates Manfred Eigen on his 90th birthday!" Template:Webarchive at mpibpc.mpg.de
• Template:YouTube
• Template:Nobelprize including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1967 Immeasurably Fast Reactions