Erich Sackmann (born 26 November 1934) is a German experimental physicist and a pioneer of biophysics in Europe.

Career

Sackmann obtained his MSc (1961) and PhD (1964) degrees from the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wi ...

in the group of Theodor Förster. He then spent two years at

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and six years at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. Between 1974 and 1980 he was professor of physics and head of the biophysics department at

Universität Ulm Ulm University (german: Universität Ulm) is a public university in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer scie ...

, and from 1980 until retirement in 2003 he held the same positions at the Physics Department of the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

. Sackmann dedicated a lifetime of research towards probing the living cell with tools of physics, long before biophysics was the mode of the day. Considered as a father of biophysics in Europe, he pioneered, along with others, the idea of a “bottom up” approach towards understanding the cell – starting from relatively simple systems like lipid bilayers, giant vesicles and actin in solution and going towards more and more complex systems to reach eventually an understanding at the level of the entire cell. More than 200 publications and several book
Literatur von und über Erich Sackmann
testify to his contributions to soft matter and

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

. His early work was mainly on

lyotropic A liquid crystalline mesophase is called lyotropic (a portmanteau of lyo- "dissolve" and -tropic "change" ) if formed by dissolving an amphiphilic mesogen in a suitable solvent, under appropriate conditions of concentration, temperature and p ...

liquid crystals Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. The ...

and lipid membranes. Later, along with his students he laid the foundations of our current understanding of membrane adhesion. Over the years, his team developed and improved the technique of

reflection interference contrast microscopy Reflection or reflexion may refer to: Science and technology * Reflection (physics), a common wave phenomenon ** Specular reflection, reflection from a smooth surface *** Mirror image, a reflection in a mirror or in water ** Signal reflection, in ...

– RICM (which is quantitative interference reflection microscopy – IRM) – a powerful tool to probe adhesion of membranes and thin films. Collaborations with theoreticians like Reinhard Lipowsky, Udo Seifert and

Robijn Bruinsma Robijn F. Bruinsma (born May 15, 1953, Haarlem, The Netherlands) is a theoretical physicist and is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles and Chair of the Department of Theoretical Physics for the Life Sciences at Leid ...

have led to seminal works on adhesion of cell mimetic giant vesicles (also called

liposomes A liposome is a small artificial Vesicle (biology and chemistry), vesicle, spherical in shape, having at least one lipid bilayer. Due to their hydrophobicity and/or hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, particle size and many other properties, lipo ...

). Another of his interests is the

cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is comp ...

and its dynamics. To study cytoskeletal dynamics, his team developed

magnetic tweezers Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

capable of exerting very small pulling forces. He has contributed to our understanding of the dynamics of single

actin Actin is a protein family, family of Globular protein, globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in myofibril, muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all Eukaryote, eukaryotic cel ...

filaments,

networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

as well as intact living cells. His research interests include: physics of self assembly and function of artificial and

biological membranes A biological membrane, biomembrane or cell membrane is a selectively permeable membrane that separates the interior of a cell from the external environment or creates intracellular compartments by serving as a boundary between one part of the ...

viscoelastic In materials science and continuum mechanics, viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic characteristics when undergoing deformation. Viscous materials, like water, resist shear flow and strain linear ...

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of mi ...

of cells, physics of the

based

: micro-

rheology Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid (liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an appli ...

of macromolecular networks, applications of solid-supported lipid-protein membranes, ultrathin hydrated

polymer A polymer (; Greek ''poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic and ...

layers and polymer/membrane composite films and

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons behav ...

Reflectivity The reflectance of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in reflecting radiant energy. It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the response of the electroni ...

as a new tool to study the self assembly of membrane associated proteins. Along with Reinhard Lipowsky, he has authored "the Structure and Dynamics of Membranes". Recently, along with Rudolf Merkel, he has published "Lehrbuch der Biophysik" – a text book on biophysics aimed at students and researchers. He was elected a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its moti ...

in 2002. In recognition of his research work, in 2006, he was awarded the Stern-Gerlach-Medal by the DPG, German Physical Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sackmann, Eric 1934 births German biophysicists Living people Scientists at Bell Labs Technical University of Munich faculty University of Ulm faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society

Career

See also

References