Regine Kahmann

Regine Kahmann (born 20 October 1948 in Staßfurt, Saxony-Anhalt) is a German microbiologist and was Director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg from 2000 to 2019. She was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMRS) in 2020.

Kahmann's early work focused on microbiology and phages. She later switched to studying corn smut (Ustilago maydis), and the causes of disease in maize. Corn smut is now considered a model organism for the study of biotrophic fungi. in 1948 to Werner and Elfriede Kahmann. Her parents were farmers in Langenweddingen, near Magdeburg in East Germany. Due to land reform and political repression, her family left the German Democratic Republic in 1952, settling in Rassau, near Uelzen in Lower Saxony.

A major research focus in her lab is the investigation of the infection mechanism of a parasitic fungus, corn smut (Ustilago maydis), which causes tumors on maize plants.

Academy memberships

1991 European Molecular Biology Organization 1999 Bavarian Academy of Sciences (since 2001 as corresponding member) 1998 Academia Europaea 2001 Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences

Prizes and awards

1993 Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation 1997 Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences 1998 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2021 Member, National Academy of Sciences 2023 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Selected work