Manfred Eigen (1927–2019)

On 6 February, Manfred Eigen died at the age of 91. Manfred was a role model to countless colleagues and students, and his contributions to science ranged from measuring the velocities of ultrafast chemical reactions to defining how information content expressed as functional complexity dictates the evolution of life forms. With his death, the world has lost one of its most outstanding, creative, and unconventional thinkers and scientists. Born in Bochum, Germany, to a cellist father, Manfred became a proficient pianist and seriously considered a musical career. World War II intervened. After being drafted into the German army and escaping from an Allied prisoner-of-war camp in 1945, Manfred trudged across Germany to Gottingen, a historical center of science in Lower Saxony. At the University of Gottingen, he studied chemistry and physics, mentored by Arnold Eucken but also influenced by physicists Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Paul. He obtained a D.Sc. in physical chemistry in 1951. Gottingen was the seat of the Max Planck Society (MPS), newly established as the successor to the former Kaiser Wilhelm Society. Manfred worked as an assistant to Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, head of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Physical Chemistry. Manfred inherited this position in 1964, after being elected as a scientific member of the MPS and department director. A mere 3 years later, he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pathbreaking invention and application of relaxation methods for studying ultrafast chemical reactions. In 1971, Manfred's dream of an MPI exploiting the synergism of research in physics, chemistry, and biology under one roof took form as the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry (MPIBPC), where he directed the Department of Biochemical Kinetics. His sustained vision catapulted the MPIBPC to great success, including three Nobel Prizes. (Manfred had less luck in trying to establish an MPI for Music with composer Pierre Boulez as director.) After his formal retirement in 1995, he was a frequent guest of Richard Lerner, the then-president of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Manfred's Nobel Prize marked a turning point in his research. In the ensuing decades, he focused on the origin and definition of “life” and “information,” leading to the establishment of a revolutionary theoretical framework for evolution, also examined experimentally. Manfred and his colleagues concluded that Darwin's principle of natural selection, operating through nonlinear feedback processes, leads to optimal performance via the mechanisms of reproductive multiplication, variation through mutation and recombination, adaptation through selection, and proliferation of well-functioning descendants. Over 15 years, Manfred labored on his monumental monograph From Strange Simplicity to Complex Familiarity. He cites chemist Leslie Orgel, a pioneer in origin-of-life research, as the person who most affected his work. Manfred aimed to serve the needs of society through evolutionary biotechnology based on the research instruments he developed to explore the dynamic properties of evolving populations of molecules and organisms. Along with colleagues, he founded the companies Evotec Biosystems and Direvo Biotech to promote the use of these tools in biomedicine, including for drug discovery. ![Figure][1] PHOTO: INGRID VON KRUSE Manfred had a deep, intuitive grasp of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biology. He was unassuming, but not humble, as he was supremely confident in his ability to perceive important challenges and meet them using his own abilities and those of others he inspired. Throughout his career, he recruited exceptionally competent colleagues, summoning their best efforts by example and propelling them on their own distinguished careers. Manfred also attracted a continuous stream of prominent visitors, mesmerized by his magnetic, eloquent personality and intellect, his engaging smile, and his refined sense of humor. Manfred's Courses, Gottingen Colloquia, Winter (ski) Seminars, and “Teestunden” (rapid-fire afternoon discussions) were legendary, demanding, instructive, fun, and almost always accompanied by music. We both joined Manfred in 1967. I.P. was the first Israeli postdoc to study in Germany after the Holocaust, and T.J. came from a postdoc at Stanford University. With labmates Rudolf Rigler and Ernst Grell, we sought to apply the new relaxation kinetics methods in biology; it was the heyday of allosterism. In unforgettable Teestunden, Manfred elaborated the middle way between the sequential induced fit model of Daniel Koshland (former editor-in-chief of Science ) and the concerted model of Monod, Wyman, and Changeux. Manfred was very generous with his time and advice. Although we never saw him with a pipette, he was a stickler for optimal design of instruments, experiments, and data analysis. Because of his engaging personality, a spirit of congeniality imbued the institute, extending to the personnel of the many workshops, who revered Manfred and became our personal friends as a result. Manfred was a committed humanist and a German with a profound sense of responsibility for the obligations to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. During the early days of rapprochement after World War II, he was instrumental in establishing close ties with Israel's scientific community, particularly the Weizmann Institute of Science, serving on its Board of Governors, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Those relationships were personal, prolific, deep, and enduring. In Europe, Manfred was an untiring promoter of science and scientists. He served as president of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, member of the German Science Council, and chairperson of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Council. He communicated eloquently and directly with society about pressing issues, such as the mad cow disease hysteria in 2001. Manfred was awarded numerous honorary degrees and was elected to many academic societies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Manfred is survived by his second wife, scientist Ruthild Oswatitsch-Eigen, who accompanied him on his scientific journey for more than 50 years, and the children of his first marriage, Angela and Gerald. Along with them and his many colleagues, we will greatly miss the humanity, warmth, and intellect of this extraordinary individual, who now joins the historical pantheon of great scientists. [1]: pending:yes