Ruthild Winkler-Oswatitsch (born 1941, also known as Ruthild Oswatitsch Eigen) is an Austrian biochemist associated with the

Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (german: Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie), also known as the Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute (german: Karl-Friedrich-Bonhoeffer-Institut), was a research institute of the Ma ...

in Germany, and known for two books she coauthored with Nobel prize winner

Manfred Eigen Manfred Eigen (; 9 May 1927 – 6 February 2019) was a German Biophysical chemistry, biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on measuring fast chemical reactions. Eigen's research helped solve major problems in ...

. Her research has concerned fast biochemical reactions, game-theoretic models for

molecular evolution Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genetics ...

, and the use of

sequence analysis In bioinformatics, sequence analysis is the process of subjecting a DNA, RNA or peptide sequence to any of a wide range of analytical methods to understand its features, function, structure, or evolution. Methodologies used include sequence alignm ...

of DNA and RNA in studying the early history of biological evolution.

Education and career

Winkler is the daughter of , an Austrian physicist who worked at the

Aerodynamics Research Institute The ''Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt'' (AVA) in Göttingen was one of the four predecessor organizations of the 1969 founded "German Research and Experimental Institute for Aerospace", which in 1997 was renamed in German Aerospace Center (DLR). ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

at the time of her birth. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, her father moved to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, where she grew up. She began her studies in chemistry at

TU Wien TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

in Austria in 1961, and completed her doctorate there in 1969; her dissertation was ''Fast complex reactions of alkali ions with biological membrane carriers''. Already before completing her doctorate she had been working with Manfred Eigen at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, and since 1971 she has been a research scientist there.

Books

In 1975, Eigen and Winkler published ''Das Spiel: Naturgesetze steuern den Zufall'', translated into English by Rita and Robert Kimber as ''The Laws of the Game: How the principles of nature govern chance'' (Knopf 1981 and Princeton University Press 1993). They later published ''Steps Towards Life: A Perspective on Evolution'' (Oxford University Press 1992).

Personal life

Winkler married Eigen, as his second wife, at a time when they were already long-term research collaborators.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winkler, Ruthild 1941 births Living people Austrian chemists Women chemists TU Wien alumni Austrian women scientists