Viktor Hamburger

Viktor Hamburger (July 9, 1900 – June 12, 2001) was a German-American professor and embryologist. His collaboration with neuroscientist Rita Levi-Montalcini resulted in the discovery of nerve growth factor. In 1951 he and Howard Hamilton published a standardized stage series to describe chicken embryo development, now called the Hamburger-Hamilton stages. He was considered "one of the most influential neuroembryologists of the twentieth century". After completing gymnasium in June 1918, Hamburger was inducted into the German army, but was released after the Armistice later that year. The army had discharged him in the city of Breslau, and he began his university studies there, moving to Heidelberg for the academic year of 1919–1920. However, in the spring of 1920 he was attracted to move to Freiburg, where he went on to complete his Ph.D. in the laboratory of embryologist Hans Spemann in 1925.

Hamburger later revisited nerve growth factor, demonstrating that it was required for the maintenance of neural cells.

Selected awards 1953 – Inducted into National Academy of Sciences 1976 – Honorary doctorate, Washington University in St. Louis 1978 – Wakeman Award for Research in the Neurosciences 1981 – Ross Harrison Prize from the International Society of Developmental Biologists, shared with Donald Brown 1983 – Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University with Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi-Montalcini 1984 – Honorary doctorate from Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Uppsala University 1985 – Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience 1989 – National Medal of Science 1990 – Karl Spencer Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society 2000 – Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for Developmental Biology