Wolfgang Baumeister

Wolfgang P. Baumeister (born 22 November 1946, in Wesseling bordering Cologne) is a German molecular biologist and biophysicist. His research has been pivotal in the development of Cryoelectron tomography.

Wolfgang Baumeister
Born	(1946-11-22) November 22, 1946 (age 77) Wesseling, Germany
Education	University of Münster University of Bonn Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Known for	Cryoelectron tomography
Scientific career
Institutions	Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry Technical University of Munich
Doctoral advisor	Helmut Ruska
Notable students	Andrei Lupaș (postdoc) Elizabeth Villa (postdoc) Julia Mahamid (postdoc)
Website	www.biochem.mpg.de/baumeister

Education and career

After completing his Abitur, Wolfgang Baumeister studied biology, chemistry, and physics from 1966 to 1967 at the University of Münster and from 1967 to 1969 at the University of Bonn. At the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf he was a graduate student from 1970 to 1973 and a research associate from 1973 to 1980 in the department of biophysics. He received his Promotion in 1973 and his Habilitation in 1978. From 1981 to 1982 he was a Heisenberg Fellow at the physics department of the Cavendish Laboratory of England's University of Cambridge.^[1]

From 1983 to 1987 he was group leader (with rank C3, Professor Extraordinarius) of the "Molecular Structural Biology" working group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich.^[1] The MPI's research department of "Molecular Structural Biology" does research involving molecular biological structures revealed by electron microscopy, cryoelectron tomography, protein and cell structure, and protein degradation^[2] He was an außerplanmäßiger Professor from 1984 to 1987 at the University of Düsseldorf and is since 1987 an außerplanmäßiger Professor in the Faculty of Chemistry of the Technical University of Munich. Since 1988 he is the head of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry's department of structural biology.^[1] Since 2000 he has also been an honorary professor in the Faculty of Physics of the Technical University of Munich.^[3]

Baumeister has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including Current Biology, the Journal of Microscopy, the Journal of Structural Biology, and Trends in Cell Biology.^[1] He is now the editor-in-chief of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.^[4]

Honors and awards

• 1998 – Otto Warburg Medal
• 2000 – elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences,^[5]
• 2001 – elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina,^[6]
• 2003 – elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1]
• 2003 – Louis-Jeantet Prize^[1]
• 2003 – I. & H. Wachter Award,^[7]
• 2005 – Harvey Prize^[8]
• 2005 – Schleiden Medal
• 2006 – Ernst Schering Prize
• 2008 – Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research of Utrecht University,^[9]
• 2010 – elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
• 2018 – Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine.^[1]
• 2022 – Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics^[10]
• 2023 – Rosenstiel Award^[11]

References

1. "Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister" (PDF). Leopoldina. 2010.
2. "Wolfgang Baumeister, Research Department "Molecular Structural Biology"". Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.
3. "Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister". Technical University of Munich (tum.de).
4. "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications". journals.elsevier.com.
5. "Prof. Dr. Wolfgang P. Baumeister". Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
6. "Mitglieder. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister". Leopoldina Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften.
7. "Awardee 2003, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang P. Baumeister, for the elucication of the structure and mechanism of the proteasome". Ilse & Helmut Wachter Stiftung at the Medical University Innsbruck.
8. "Technion Honors". technion.ac.il. 11 August 2015.
9. "Bijvoet Medal". Utrecht University. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
10. "Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics".
11. Rosenstiel Award 2023