Otto-Warburg Medal 2018 for Opto Geneticist

06 February 2018

This year UniCat professor Dr. Peter Hegemann will be awarded the Otto-Warburg Medal. With the award Hegemann will be honored for his research in the field of light-driven ion channels, the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) announced yesterday.

Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann © TU Berlin / Phil Dera

The renowned professor for experimental biophysics is considered a co-founder of optogenetics which currently is regarded as one of the most dynamic research fields in the life sciences and the neurosciences. The scientist will receive the Otto-Warburg Medal 2018 and 25,000.00 Euros in prize money for further research projects.

The award ceremony will take place on March 23 in the context of the 69th Mosbach Colloquium in Mosbach, Germany. Professor Hegemann will collect his medal personally.

Since 2012 GBM and Elsevier jointly have been awarding outstanding scientific achievements in basic biochemical and molecular biological research. The Otto-Warburg Medal is deemed the highest German award in this field. Among previous laureates are leading international scientists like Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier and Professor Stefan Jentsch, who was awarded the medal posthumously for the first time last year.

Further information about the award can be found here: www.otto-warburg-medaille.org.