Max Delbrück
After graduating from school with a high school diploma, he initially began studying astronomy in Berlin, but soon left both this subject and his hometown and moved to Göttingen and physics. After completing his doctorate, he went abroad and completed a year of training with the physicists Wolfgang Pauli in Switzerland and with Niels Bohr in Denmark. It was Bohr who aroused Delbrück's interest in biology with a lecture on light and life. In 1932 Delbrück went back to Berlin. He took up an assistant position with Lise Meitner, who later discovered nuclear fission. Delbrück hoped that the spatial proximity of the many "Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes" (today's Max Planck Institutes) would enable different disciplines to approach the problems of biology together. He began to devote himself to genes.
At his mother's house he organized private meetings of scientists, physicists and biologists. Among others, he invited the Russian geneticist Nikolai Wladimirovich Timofeeff-Ressovsky and the physicist Karl Günter Zimmer. The groundbreaking and now classic text "On the Nature of Gene Mutation and Gene Structure" emerged from the joint discussions in 1935. In this publication, also known as "three-man work," Delbrück proposed a first genetic model. By linking two sciences that previously only existed side by side (biology and physics), he also took a first step towards modern molecular biology. In 1937, Delbrück took advantage of the offer to go to the USA on a John D. Rockefeller scholarship in order to leave National Socialist Germany.
Delbrück went to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In terms of content, he turned his back on classical genetics and shifted the focus of his work to research into so-called phages, special viruses that attack bacteria. When the scholarship ran out in 1939, the Second World War was just beginning in Europe. Delbrück decided to stay in the USA and went to the physics department at Vanderbilt University (Nashville/Tennessee). There he met the young Italian biophysicist Salvador Luria, with whom he published a paper on the interactions between viruses and bacteria in 1943. In 1941, Max Delbrück married the American Mary Bruce, with whom he had four children. In 1953 there was another turning point in Delbrück's scientific career. He now threw himself into the behavior of organisms. He was interested in how they react to the signals from the environment. For these studies he chose the fungus Phycomyces.
Although Delbrück had long since accepted American citizenship, he tried to maintain connections to Europe and especially to Germany. He supported the reconstruction of German science after the Second World War. For example, he took part in the establishment of the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne, which he co-directed from 1961 to 1963, and in 1969 he helped the University of Konstanz set up its Biology Faculty. In 1969, together with Alfred Hershey, they received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their work. Delbrück persuaded Niels Bohr to give the speech at the opening of the Cologne Institute for Genetics. The theme was the connection between light and life, an updated version of the theme with which Bohr had sparked Delbrück's interest in biology.
His fascination with science continued into old age. Max Delbrück died on March 10, 1981 in Pasadena.
At his mother's house he organized private meetings of scientists, physicists and biologists. Among others, he invited the Russian geneticist Nikolai Wladimirovich Timofeeff-Ressovsky and the physicist Karl Günter Zimmer. The groundbreaking and now classic text "On the Nature of Gene Mutation and Gene Structure" emerged from the joint discussions in 1935. In this publication, also known as "three-man work," Delbrück proposed a first genetic model. By linking two sciences that previously only existed side by side (biology and physics), he also took a first step towards modern molecular biology. In 1937, Delbrück took advantage of the offer to go to the USA on a John D. Rockefeller scholarship in order to leave National Socialist Germany.
Delbrück went to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In terms of content, he turned his back on classical genetics and shifted the focus of his work to research into so-called phages, special viruses that attack bacteria. When the scholarship ran out in 1939, the Second World War was just beginning in Europe. Delbrück decided to stay in the USA and went to the physics department at Vanderbilt University (Nashville/Tennessee). There he met the young Italian biophysicist Salvador Luria, with whom he published a paper on the interactions between viruses and bacteria in 1943. In 1941, Max Delbrück married the American Mary Bruce, with whom he had four children. In 1953 there was another turning point in Delbrück's scientific career. He now threw himself into the behavior of organisms. He was interested in how they react to the signals from the environment. For these studies he chose the fungus Phycomyces.
Although Delbrück had long since accepted American citizenship, he tried to maintain connections to Europe and especially to Germany. He supported the reconstruction of German science after the Second World War. For example, he took part in the establishment of the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne, which he co-directed from 1961 to 1963, and in 1969 he helped the University of Konstanz set up its Biology Faculty. In 1969, together with Alfred Hershey, they received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their work. Delbrück persuaded Niels Bohr to give the speech at the opening of the Cologne Institute for Genetics. The theme was the connection between light and life, an updated version of the theme with which Bohr had sparked Delbrück's interest in biology.
His fascination with science continued into old age. Max Delbrück died on March 10, 1981 in Pasadena.