Manfred Eigen

Biography

Manfred Eigen (1927-2019) was a German biophysical chemist whose groundbreaking work on fast chemical reactions earned him the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Born in Bochum on May 9, 1927, Eigen came up with new ways to measure chemical reactions happening in microseconds or nanoseconds, opening up new possibilities for understanding basic chemical activities in living organisms. His methods allowed scientists to study reactions that were once thought too quick to measure, changing the field of physical chemistry.

Eigen began his education at the Gymnasium am Ostring and later attended the University of Göttingen, where he conducted much of his pioneering research. He developed experimental techniques like the temperature-jump and pressure-jump methods, which helped measure extremely fast chemical equilibria. These techniques were key to understanding enzyme catalysis, protein folding, and other biological processes that occur too quickly for earlier experimental methods to detect.

In addition to his Nobel Prize-winning achievements, Eigen significantly advanced knowledge about the molecular basis of evolution and the origin of life. He proposed theories on how self-replicating molecular systems could form and evolve, linking chemistry and biology in unique ways. His research at the Max Planck Institute laid the groundwork for the field of evolutionary biotechnology, which combines chemistry, biology, and information theory to examine life's basic processes.

Throughout his career, Eigen received many prestigious awards acknowledging his contributions to science, including the Otto Hahn Prize (1962), the Carus Medal (1967), the Faraday Lectureship Prize (1977), the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1992), and the Helmholtz Medal (1994). He also received the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order and the Wilhelm Exner Medal (2011). Eigen was married to Ruthild Winkler and spent his final years in Göttingen, where he died on February 6, 2019, leaving a transformed understanding of chemical kinetics and molecular evolution.