Rudolf K. Thauer (born October 5, 1939) is a biologist and a retired professor of microbiology and heads the Emeritus group at the

Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ( ...

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

. Thauer taught in the faculty of Biology at the

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 ...

for about 15 years and is known primarily for his work on the biochemistry of methanogens. He received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by 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 ...

in 1986, among numerous other honours including honorary doctorates from

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

and the University of Freiberg. In 1991 he became founding director of the

in Marburg. A novel genus of

betaproteobacteria ''Betaproteobacteria'' are a class of Gram-negative bacteria, and one of the six classes of the phylum '' Pseudomonadota'' (synonym Proteobacteria). Metabolism The ''Betaproteobacteria'' comprise over 75 genera and 400 species. Together, they ...

was named ''

Thauera ''Thauera'' is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria in the family ''Zoogloeaceae'' of the order ''Rhodocyclales'' of the ''Betaproteobacteria ''Betaproteobacteria'' are a class of Gram-negative bacteria, and one of the six classes of the phylum ...

'' in his honour. '' Methanobrevibacter thaueri'' was also named after Thauer. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2018.

References

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1939 births Living people 20th-century German biologists Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners Members of the American Philosophical Society Academic staff of the University of Marburg Max Planck Institute directors {{Germany-academic-bio-stub