Eva-Maria Neher

Eva-Maria Neher (née Ruhr, born 22 November 1950) is a German scientist in the fields of biochemistry and microbiology. She founded the Göttingen Xlab and has been its executive director since 2000. The Göttingen Xlab is an experimental laboratory for training young people from student to scientist level. She is married to Erwin Neher who is a Nobel laureate for his Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Lower Saxony State Prize.

Biography Neher was born in Mülheim, Germany. Her initial academic education as an undergraduate in microbiology was from 1969 to 1973 at the University of Göttingen. She received her diploma in biology in 1974, earning a PhD on biochemistry from the same university; her thesis was Regulation of the biosynthesis of poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate in Alcaligenes eutrophus H 16. She then worked in the same university as a staff scientist in 1977. From 1977–78 she also undertook postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in the Molecular Biology Department, Göttingen.

Awards Neher has received many awards, including: Niedersächsischer Verdienstorden (Lower Saxony Order of Merit) in 2002 GBM-Kommunikationspreis, Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie e.V. (GBM Communication Award of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in 2005 Niedersächsischer Staatspreis (Lower Saxony State Prize) in 2007 Honorary professorship, Department of Chemistry, Georg August University, Göttingen in 2009 Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Federal Cross of Merit First class) in 2009