Gregor Luthe (born 19 October 1970) is a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

toxicologist Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating ex ...

nanotechnologist Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. He is known for his work on toxicology of

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...

and PBDEs.

Early life

Luthe was born in Epe on 19 October 1970, the only child of bricklayer and stove fitter Ewald Luthe and spinning mill worker Käthe Luthe, née Böcker. Luthe had a hard start at school as he stammered until 9th grade, when he learned to manage this, and leaped forward, leaving the lower education

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

to enter the Gymnasium in Bardel, finishing it 1989 as best in class. At the age of 19, he traveled to visit the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

two weeks before the

Fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

. Luthe was held for

STASI The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

questioning on 9 November 1989. He learned about this day's events only on the day of his release, the following morning.

Career

Gregor Luthe studied chemistry, biology and physics at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

(1990 to 1995), where he specialized on fluorinated analogs of

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...

compounds and graduated with the diploma. In 2002 he obtained his doctorate at the

VU University Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

(Netherlands). Starting 1996 he worked as a lecturer at the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede (Netherlands). As

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

fellow of the European Council Luthe went to

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

(Norway) 2002 to 2005, where he was a senior researcher at the NTNU, and also worked as the

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

and associate of the company ''Chiron''. 2005 he was awarded with the

Feodor Lynen Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (; 6 April 19116 August 1979) was a German biochemist. In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Konrad Bloch for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and ...

research scholarship of the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...

to study

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

(USA), where he still is visiting professor and supervises doctorate students of the interdisciplinary graduate program in human toxicology. Luthe started investigating in e.g. the toxicology of

and PBDEs. After some months as a lecturer at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo The University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH Hilo) is a public university in Hilo, Hawaii. It is one of ten general campuses of the University of Hawaii system. It was founded as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School in 1945 and was a bran ...

he returned to Europe, to be a lecturer at the

Saxion University of Applied Sciences Saxion University of Applied Sciences () is a Dutch university of applied sciences with three campuses in the eastern Netherlands. It provides more than 100 courses in study fields as archaeology, finance, law, engineering, hospitality, business, ...

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

(Netherlands). 2007 to 2008 Luthe was additionally lecturer at the

Jacobs University Bremen Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor's ...

. In 2010 Gregor Luthe founded the company ''Windplussonne GmbH''. In February 2012 Gregor Luthe was appointed Professor of Nanotechnology (''NanoBioInterface'') at Saxion in Enschede, which was the first Nanotechnology lectureship in the Netherlands. The chair focuses on the development and application of NanoBio interface production techniques which are essential for medical, biological, toxicological and chemical applications, e. g.

Lab-on-a-Chip A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. ...

devices. Luthe also engaged in multiple regional and international research partnerships and events, e.g. in January 2014 by establishing the ''Euregional Conference of Applied Nanotechnology'' (ECAN 2014) in Enschede, partnered by ''Alumni Nanotechnology Saxion'' (A.N.S), Saxion University of Applied Sciences, the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology (

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

) and

CeNTech The Center for Nanotechnology is one of the first centers for nanotechnology. It is located in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It offers many possibilities for research, education, start-ups and companies in nanotechnology. Hence it wo ...

(University of Münster). In September 2014 Gregor Luthe was co-initiating the cooperation of the University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences, to promote joint research in the field of Nanotechnology and to start the Netherlands' first Master's degree program in nanotechnology. In 2014 Gregor Luthe founded the company ''Smart Material Printing'' with former students, to work on the production of new materials for 3D printing technologies as well as antibacterial surfaces. He also co-founded the company ''Nanobay – NB GmbH''. Gregor Luthe left his chair in Nanotechnology at Saxion in February 2015 to focus on his company activities. Luthe continues to engage in research projects and scientific work.

Awards and memberships

* 2002: Marie Curie Scholarship of the European Council * 2005: Feodor Lynen Research Scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation * 2007: Foreign Countries Tutor of the Germany Society of Chemists (

GDCh The German Chemical Society (German: ', GDCh) is a learned society and professional association founded in 1949 to represent the interests of German chemists in local, national and international contexts. GDCh "brings together people working in che ...

) for the Netherlands * 2013: Chosen among the 15 most inspiring professors of the Netherlands by ScienceGuide

External links

profile
at the

, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Human Toxicology
profile
on

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

scientific publications
on pubfacts.com
author overview
incl. citation refs. on Scopus (Elsevier)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luthe, Gregor 21st-century German chemists 1970 births Living people University of Münster alumni Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Norwegian University of Science and Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Iowa alumni University of Iowa staff University of Hawaiʻi faculty People from Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia