Werner Arber
Werner Arber ( born June 3, 1929 in Graenichen ) is a Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Life
Werner Arber studied after obtaining his baccalaureate at the Old Canton Aarau 1949-1953 Chemistry and Physics at the ETH Zurich. In 1958 he received his doctorate at the University of Geneva. After a research stay in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California ( USCLA ), he returned from 1959 to 1970 at the University of Geneva, where in 1965 he became a professor. Since 1971, taught and researched Werner Arber as Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Biozentrum, University of Basel. From 1986 to 1988 Arber was rector of the University of Basel. For years he was a member and Vice President of the Swiss Science Council and from 1996 to 1999 President of the International Council of Science ICSU. He retired in 1996.
Since 20 December 2010, he is president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which he is a member since 1981. The Reformed Christian is so since it was founded over 400 years ago the first president who does not belong to the Roman Catholic Church.
Work
His main research areas are bacterial restriction systems and mobile genetic elements ( insertion elements, transposons ) as well as the modification and restriction of ribonucleic acid of bacteria and bacteriophage.
In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith Othanel for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application in molecular genetics.
Awards
- European Molecular Biology Organization (1964 )
- European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (1981 )
- Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (1984 )
- Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984 )
- Academia Europaea (1989 )
- Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology (1996);
- Associate Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences ( TWAS ) (1997 )