Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Stefan H. E. Kaufmann

Council Member

Scientific Co-Chairperson Physiology/Medicine

Stefan H. E. Kaufmann is the Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin (1993). He is now Director Emeritus both there and at the Max Planck Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen. He is also Senior Professor at Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, Honorary Professor at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru, Visiting Professor at Tongji University, Faculty of Medicine, Shanghai, China, at the Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China, and Honorary Professor at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. He received the Doctor Honoris Causa of Aix-Marseille Université, France.

Stefan Kaufmann completed his studies in biology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 1977 with a doctorate (summa cum laude). From 1987 to 1991, he was Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and from 1991 to 1998, Full Professor of Immunology at the University of Ulm.

His scientific interests include: Immune response against bacterial pathogens with an emphasis on T cell-mediated protection and pathology and a focus on tuberculosis; the rational development of vaccines and biosignatures for diagnosis and prognosis of disease; a tuberculosis vaccine, developed by his group is currently being tested for protective efficacy and safety in several phase III clinical trials.

Kaufmann is a member of numerous societies and academies, including the American Academy of Microbiology, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He is former President and Honorary Member of the German Society of Immunology, former President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) and former President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS).

Kaufmann published more than 1000 scientific papers, mostly in high-ranking journals with more than 100,000 citations according to Google Scholar. He is one of the world’s most cited scientists (PLoS Biol 17(8): e3000384, 2019) and one of the most cited immunologists worldwide  – h-index (according to J. E. Hirsch): Google Scholar 158. Stefan Kaufmann received numerous science awards including the Aronson Prize of the State of Berlin in 1988, the Smith Kline Beecham Research Award in 1999, the Pettenkofer Award in 1992, the Main Prize of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology in 1993, the Eijkman Medal, University of Utrecht in 2004, the Gardner Middlebrook Award in 2014, the Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck Prize in 2018, and the Ernst Hellmut Vits Prize in 2022.

Kaufmann was Chair of the Board of the Ernst Schering Foundation, Chair of the Scientific Board of the Memento Prize, Member of the Executive Committee of the Robert Koch Foundation; Board Member of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), member of the Scientific Board of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), and member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

Photo/Credit: Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology