Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker

Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker (born 26 July 1941 in Frankfurt ) is a German geneticist, biochemist and research manager. His main fields of research are virus/cell interaction, the mechanisms of gene expression in higher cells and prion diseases. He was President of the German Research Foundation and Secretary General of the European Research Council and is Secretary General of the Human Frontier Science Program Organization.

Life and work Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker is the son of the German chemist and former CEO of the Hoechst AG Karl Winnacker.

He studied chemistry at ETH Zurich where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1968. Winnacker took part in an effort to chemically synthesize the Vitamin B12. From 1968 to 1972 he took a postdoctoral research position at the University of California, Berkeley, to work with Horace Barker, who discovered the active form of vitamin B12. Winnacker set out to isolate enzymes involved in B12 synthesis. While at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden he became intrigued by the use of recombinant DNA and associated techniques to synthesize and manipulate DNA. In 1972, he became assistant and then DFG Visiting professor at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne. In 1977, he was appointed associate professor at the Institute of Biochemistry at LMU Munich where he was made full professor in 1980. From 1984 to 1997, he was Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Gene Center Munich of LMU Munich.

In 1998, he was elected President of the German Research Foundation (DFG), a position he held until the end of 2006. From 2003 to 2004, he was Chairman of the European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) which introduced the EURYI Award and, from 2000 to 2004, Member of the European Group on Life Science (established by European Commissioner for Research Philippe Busquin). From 2007 to 2009, he served as the first Secretary General of the European Research Council (ERC). In 2009, he became as successor of the Nobel Prize winner Torsten Wiesel Secretary General of the Human Frontier Science Program Organization.

Honours and distinctions

1992 Bavarian Order of Merit 1994 Arthur Burckhardt Prize 1996 Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1999 Zimmermann Prize for Cancer Research 2006 Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur 2010 Grand Cross with Star (Knight Commander's Cross) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2011 Robert Koch Gold Medal

Positions in scientific societies and boards

1984–1987 Expert Member of the Enquete Commission of the German Parliament Since 1989 Member of the International Science Committee of the National Academy of Science in Beijing, China Since 1993 Member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts Since 1994 External Vice President of the Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in Halle Since 1997 Member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences Since 1998 Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities Member of the Institute of Medicine - National Academy of Sciences, Washington 2000–2004 Member of the European Life Science Group of EU Commissioner Philipe Busquin 2000–2003 Member of the German National Ethics Board

Literature