Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Lubitz

Wolfgang Lubitz, born 1949 in Berlin, studied chemistry at the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin (1969-1974) where he also received his doctoral degree (1977) and habilitation in organic chemistry (1982). Subsequently, he went to La Jolla (UC San Diego) for about 2 years to work as a research scientist in biophysics sponsored by a Max Kade Fellowship (New York). From 1979 to 1989 he was assistant and associate professor at the FU Berlin, 1989 to 1991 professor at the Universität Stuttgart (experimental physics/biophysics), and 1991 to 2001 professor and chair of physical chemistry at the Max Volmer Institut, Technische Universität Berlin.

In 2000 Professor Lubitz became a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Radiation Chemistry in Mülheim/Ruhr, which was soon renamed MPI for Bioinorganic Chemistry and more recently MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion. Since 2017 he is Director emeritus at the institute. Professor Lubitz is honorary professor at the Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf. Among other awards and fellowships, he received the Zavoisky Award (Russia, 2002), the Bruker Prize (UK, 2003) and the Gold Medal of the International EPR Society (2005). Prof. Lubitz is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). He has received honorary doctorates (Dr. h. c.) from the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2008) and the Université d’Aix-Marseille, France (2014). Since 2004 he is member of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, in 2015 he took over the position of Vice President.

His research work is focused on the investigation of catalytic metal centers in metalloproteins, the primary processes of photosynthesis and the application of electron paramagnetic resonance methods and related quantum chemical calculations.