Max Rudolf "Rudi" Lemberg FRS FAA (19 October 1896 – 10 April 1975) was a German-Australian biochemist who specialised in

porphyrin Porphyrins ( ) are heterocyclic, macrocyclic, organic compounds, composed of four modified pyrrole subunits interconnected at their α carbon atoms via methine bridges (). In vertebrates, an essential member of the porphyrin group is heme, w ...

structure and function. He was a Foundation

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

(FAA). Originally published in ''Records of the Australian Academy of Science'', vol.4, no.1, 1978. Also available a
AAS
/ref> First published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, (MUP), 2000. Lemberg served in the German Army during WWI and earned an

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

. He married

textile artist Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials use ...

Hanne in Breslau in 1924. The couple were involved in social work programs to improve the slums and in youth groups. The Lembergs moved to

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

after their marriage, where Rudi worked at the university until 1933. Rudi, whose family background was Jewish, fled Nazi Germany with Hanna in 1933. He was recommended for a position at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, and the Lembergs moved from there to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1935. He applied for

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

as an Australian citizen in 1937. He was a director of the

Kolling Institute of Medical Research The Kolling Institute is located in the grounds of the Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards, Sydney Australia. The institute, founded in 1920, is the oldest medical research institute in New South Wales. The Kolling Institute is a part o ...

from 1935 to 1972, establishing a major research focus on

porphyrins Porphyrins ( ) are heterocyclic, macrocyclic, organic compounds, composed of four modified pyrrole subunits interconnected at their α carbon atoms via methine bridges (). In vertebrates, an essential member of the porphyrin group is heme, whi ...

, structures within molecules which give the red colour to

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

and the yellow colour to

bile Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), also known as gall, is a yellow-green/misty green fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is primarily composed of water, is pro ...

. In 1949, he and collaborator J. W. Legge published ''Hematin Compounds and Bile Pigments'', the "high-water mark in Lemberg's scientific development and thinking". In 1953, they built a home in

North Wahroonga North Wahroonga is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Wahroonga is located 23 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Ku-ring-ga ...

, called The Sanctuary. The house was designed by fellow German refugee Hugh Buhrich in the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

style. The Lembergs joined the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

in 1956. In 1973 Hanna Lemberg made an embroidered wall-hanging (or tapestry) titled The Sanctuary depicting their home on a large native bush land plot. The Lembergs gave part of their property to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) where a meeting house was built, meetings held, and Rudi taught young friends about evolution and the spirit. Rudi died in 1975, and Hanna died in 1998. The couple had no children and left their property to the Quakers.

Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship

The Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship offered by the academy is named in his honour. Awardees: * 2020 – Robert Edwards * 2018 – Christina A. Kellogg * 2016 – Lawrence Berliner * 2012 – Peter Jones * 2010 –

Johann Deisenhofer Johann Deisenhofer (; born September 30, 1943) is a German biochemist who, along with Hartmut Michel and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for their determination of the first crystal structure of an integral membrane p ...

* 2008 – John F. Allen * 2006 – Jan Vymazal * 2004 – Gerard Dismukes * 2002 –

Petra Fromme Petra Fromme is a German-American chemist who is Director of the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery and Regents Professor at the Arizona State University. Her research considers the structure-to-function relationship of the membrane ...

; Richard Perham * 2001 – D.M.J.S. Bowman * 1999 –

Vern Schramm Vern L. Schramm (born November 9, 1941) is a professor and Ruth Merns Chair in Biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Schramm was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. His laboratory's resear ...

* 1997 – Martin Brand * 1996 –

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator Science communication encompasses a wide range of activities tha ...

* 1993 – Winslow Briggs * 1992 –

Edward Kosower Edward Malcolm Kosower (February 2, 1929 – April 7, 2022) was an American-Israeli chemist. Kosower was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 2, 1929 and attended high school at Stuyvesant, where he was a classmate of fellow chemist Andrew Str ...

* 1991 –

Robert Huber Robert Huber (; born 20 February 1937) is a German biochemist and Nobel laureate. known for his work crystallizing an intramembrane protein important in photosynthesis and subsequently applying X-ray crystallography to elucidate the protein's st ...

* 1990 –

Jerker Porath Jerker Porath, (23 October 1921 – 21 January 2016) was a Swedish biochemist who invented several separation methods for biomolecules. He was born in Sala. Porath studied at Uppsala University and initially did research in organic chemistry und ...

* 1989 –

Michael Rosenzweig Michael L. Rosenzweig (born 1941) is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. He developed and popularized the concept of reconciliation ecology. He received his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Pennsylv ...

* 1986 – Hugo Scheer * 1985 –

Michael Rossmann Michael G. Rossmann (30 July 1930 – 14 May 2019) was a German-American physicist, microbiologist, and Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University who led a team of researchers to be the first to map the structur ...

* 1984 – O.T.G. Jones * 1983 – Jack Heslop-Harrison * 1982 – Wolfgang Joklik * 1981 –

Emanuel Margoliash Emanuel Margoliash (February 10, 1920 – April 10, 2008) was a biochemist who spent much of his career studying the protein cytochrome c. He is best known for his work on molecular evolution; with Walter Fitch, he devised the Fitch-Margoliash ...

; Peter H. Raven * 1980 – L.E. Mortenson; G.J.V. Nossal * 1979 –

Britton Chance Britton "Brit" Chance (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was an American biochemist, biophysicist, scholar, and inventor whose work helped develop spectroscopy as a way to diagnose medical problems. He was "a world leader in transforming ...

; John Gurdon;

Gunther Stent Gunther Siegmund Stent (March 28, 1924 – June 12, 2008) was a graduate professor of molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley. An early bacteriophage biologist, he was known also for his studies on the metabolism of bacteria ...

References

1896 births 1975 deaths Australian biochemists German emigrants to Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Royal Society Place of birth missing {{Australia-scientist-stub