Queen Beatrix meets Nobel Laureates in 1983c

Manfred Eigen (; 9 May 1927 – 6 February 2019) was a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for work on measuring fast chemical reactions. 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 Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

to study the underpinnings of life at the molecular level. His work was hailed for creating a new scientific and technological discipline: evolutionary

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

Education and early life

Eigen was born on 9 May 1927 in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous German federal state of N ...

, the son of Hedwig (Feld) and Ernst Eigen, a chamber musician. As a child he developed a deep passion for music, and studied piano.

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

interrupted his formal education. At age fifteen he was drafted into service in a German antiaircraft unit. He was captured by the Soviets toward the end of the war. He managed to escape (he said later that escape was relatively easy), and walked hundreds of miles across defeated Germany, arriving in Göttingen in 1945. He lacked the necessary documentation for acceptance to university, 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 previously enrolled received priority, he enrolled in Geophysics. He earned an undergraduate degree and entered graduate study in natural sciences. One of his advisors was

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematis ...

, the noted proponent of the

uncertainty principle In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physic ...

. He received his doctorate in 1951.

Career and research

Eigen received his Ph.D. at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

in 1951 under supervision of

Arnold Eucken Arnold Thomas Eucken (3 July 1884 – 16 June 1950) was a German chemist and physicist. He examined the energy states of the Hydrogen atom and contributed to knowledge of the atomic structure. He also contributed to chemical engineering and proce ...

. 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. Beginning in 1953 Eigen worked at the

for Physical Chemistry in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, 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''. In 1967, Eigen was awarded, along with

Ronald George Wreyford Norrish Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS (9 November 1897 – 7 June 1978) was a British chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967. Education and early life Norrish was born in Cambridge and was educated at The Perse School and Emm ...

and George Porter, the

. They were cited for their studies of extremely fast

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking ...

s induced in response to very short

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the n ...

s of

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

. In addition, Eigen's name is linked with the theory of quasispecies, the

error threshold In evolutionary biology and population genetics, the error threshold (or critical mutation rate) is a limit on the number of base pairs a self-replicating molecule may have before mutation will destroy the information in subsequent generations o ...

error catastrophe Error catastrophe refers to the cumulative loss of genetic information in a lineage of organisms due to high mutation rates. The mutation rate above which error catastrophe occurs is called the error threshold. Both terms were coined by Manfred ...

Eigen's paradox In evolutionary biology and population genetics, the error threshold (or critical mutation rate) is a limit on the number of base pairs a self-replicating molecule may have before mutation will destroy the information in subsequent generations o ...

, and the chemical hypercycle, the cyclic linkage of reaction cycles as an explanation for the

self-organization Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when suffic ...

of prebiotic systems, which he described with Peter Schuster in 1977. Eigen founded two biotechnology companies, ''

Evotec Evotec SE is a publicly listed drug discovery and development company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company operates globally, largely through external alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions, ...

'' and ''Direvo''. In 1981, Eigen became a founding member of the

World Cultural Council The World Cultural Council is an international organization whose goals are to promote cultural values, goodwill and philanthropy among individuals. The organization founded in 1981 and based in Mexico, has held a yearly award ceremony since 198 ...

. Eigen was a member of the

Pontifical Academy of Sciences The Pontifical Academy of Sciences ( it, Pontificia accademia delle scienze, la, Pontificia Academia Scientiarum) is a scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mat ...

even though he was an atheist. He died on 6 February 2019 at the age of 91.

Personal life

Eigen was married to Elfriede Müller. The union produced two children, a boy and a girl. He later married Ruthild Winkler-Oswatitsch, a longtime scientific partner.

Honours and awards

Eigen won numerous awards for his research including: *

Otto Hahn Prize The Otto Hahn Prize is awarded biennially jointly by the Society of German Chemists (), the German Physical Society () and the city of Frankfurt am Main for outstanding achievement in the field of chemistry, physics or applied engineering science. ...

(1962) * Elected a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(1964) * Elected a member of the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

(1966) *

(1967), shared with

and George Porter, for his studies on the

kinetics Kinetics ( grc, κίνησις, , kinesis, ''movement'' or ''to move'') may refer to: Science and medicine * Kinetics (physics), the study of motion and its causes ** Rigid body kinetics, the study of the motion of rigid bodies * Chemical kin ...

of extremely fast running

s with relaxation methods * Elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(1968) * Member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(now the Russian Academy of Sciences) (1976) * * Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1973 *

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Red Eag ...

(1973) * Faraday Lectureship Prize from the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Inst ...

in 1977 *

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian ...

* Lower Saxony State Prize for Science (1980) *

Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...

(1992) * Helmholtz Medal (

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the German states of Berlin ...

, 1994) * Max Planck Research Award (1994), jointly with Rudolf Rigler of the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...

* Honorary member of the

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction beg ...

(2001) * Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Human Virology in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

(2005) *

Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921. The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...

(2011)

Honorary doctorates

He received 15 honorary doctorates. * Honorary Professor,

Technical University of Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany ...

(1965) * Honorary doctorate from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

(1966) * Honorary doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis (1966) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

(1966) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

(1968) * Honorary Professor,

(1971) * Honorary doctorate from

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

(1973) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

(1976) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

(1978) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Debrecen ThUniversity of Debrecen( hu, Debreceni Egyetem) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its establishment in 1538 by Suleiman the Magnificent f ...

(1982) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(1982) * Honorary doctorate from

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 science, applied and Natural sci ...

(1983) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Bielefeld Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organizatio ...

(1985) * Honorary doctorate from

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah ...

(1990) * Honorary doctorate from the University of Alicante (1990) * Honorary doctorate from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

, Portugal (2007) * Honorary Degree, Scripps Institute of Research (2011)

References

Bibliography

* * *
Manfred Eigen tells his life story at Web of Stories
(video) * ttp://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/123 Interview with Manfred Eigen by Harry Kroto, NLFreeview 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

External links

"The institute congratulates Manfred Eigen on his 90th birthday!"
at mpibpc.mpg.de * * including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1967 ''Immeasurably Fast Reactions'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Eigen, Manfred 1927 births 2019 deaths Technical University of Braunschweig faculty Faraday Lecturers Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Founding members of the World Cultural Council German biophysicists German atheists German Nobel laureates Max Planck Society people Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Chemistry People from Bochum People from the Province of Westphalia German physical chemists Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Studienstiftung alumni University of Göttingen alumni University of Göttingen faculty Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Luftwaffenhelfer German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union German escapees Escapees from Soviet detention Members of the American Philosophical Society Max Planck Institute directors