Jörg Hinrich Hacker (born 13 February 1952) is a German

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...

. He served as president of the

Robert Koch Institute The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin and Wernigerode. As an upper federal agency, it is subordinate to the Federa ...

from 2008 to 2010 and of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

from 2010 to 2020. He is the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the ''

International Journal of Medical Microbiology The ''International Journal of Medical Microbiology'', formerly the ''Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie'', is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering research on microbiology published by Elsevier. It was established in 1887 by Friedrich Loeffler. ...

''.

Early life and education

Born in Grevesmühlen,

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...

, Hacker studied biology from 1970 to 1974 at the

Martin Luther University Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

in Halle and obtained his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1979.

Career

From 1980 to 1988 Hacker worked as a junior researcher at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

, where he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

in 1986. From 1988 until 1993, Hacker was

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of microbiology at the University of Würzburg. In 1993 he moved to the chair for Molecular Infection Biology, which he held until 2008. From 2003 to 2009, he was vice president of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

. From March 2008 to March 2010, he succeeded Reinhard Kurth as president of the

. On 1 October 2009, Hacker was elected president of the

. The solemn inauguration ceremony took place on 26 February 2010 and his official starting date was 1 March 2010. In 2020, he was succeeded by Gerald Haug. In 2011, Hacker was appointed by

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

to the Federal Government’s Ethics Commission on a Safe Energy Supply, co-chaired by Matthias Kleiner and

Klaus Töpfer Klaus Töpfer (29 July 1938 – 8 June 2024) was a German politician ( CDU) and environmental politics expert. From 1998 to 2006 he was executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Personal life Töpfer was born in ...

. In 2017, he was part of the selection committee chaired by Jules A. Hoffmann that chose Stewart Cole as director of the

Institut Pasteur The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. T ...

. From 2017 until 2019, he was a member of the German Ministry of Health’s International Advisory Board on Global Health, chaired by Ilona Kickbusch. In 2022 he received the Robert Koch Medal in Gold.

Work

Hacker's main research interests are the molecular analysis of bacterial

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

s, their spread and variability, as well as their interactions with host cells. From 2001 to 2008 he served as co-coordinator of the BMBF programs PathoGenoMik and PathoGenoMik Plus. Hacker is responsible for coining the term " pathogenicity island" to describe a region of a bacterial genome that encodes disease causing traits.

Other activities

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2013) * German Cancer Aid, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012) *

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012) *

Leibniz Association The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. Funding and Structure As of 2020, 96 non-u ...

, Member of the Senate * Robert Koch Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors (since 1998) * Centre Virchow-Villermé, Member of the International Advisory Board *

(RKI), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board * Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Member of the Board of Trustees *

World Health Summit The World Health Summit is an international conference that has been held in Berlin every October since 2009. It has developed into one of the world's leading global health conferences. It was held for the first time on the occasion of the 300th a ...

, Member of the CouncilCouncil

. * Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board (2014–2017) *

Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (), or BAM, is a German research institute in the field of materials science. History The institute's origins start in 1871, the year in which Germany was unified, as the ''Mechanisch-Tec ...

(BAM), Member of the Board of Trustees (2013–2017) *

, Member of the Scientific Council (2007‐2015) *

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (2006–2016) * Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Member of the Supervisory Board (2005–2013)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hacker, Jorg German microbiologists 1952 births Living people People from Grevesmühlen University of Würzburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Würzburg Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Robert Koch Institute people Foreign fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Presidents of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina