Background
Wüthrich, Kurt was born on October 4, 1938 in Aarberg, Switzerland.
biophysicist educator molecular biologist
Wüthrich, Kurt was born on October 4, 1938 in Aarberg, Switzerland.
Master of Science, University Bern, Switzerland, 1962. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry, University Basel, Switzerland, 1964. Coronary heart Disease (honorary), University Siena, Italy, 1997.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Zürich, Switzerland, 1997. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, 2001. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Sheffield, England, 2004.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Valencia, Spain, 2004. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), King George's Medical University, India, 2005. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Pecs, Hungary, 2005.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), Lomonosov State University, Russia, 2006. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Verona, Italy, 2007. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Rene Descartes, Paris, 2007.
That was followed by a stint working with Robert G. Shulman at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey from 1967 to 1969. Wüthrich returned to Switzerland, to Zürich, in 1969, where he began his career there at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, rising to Professor of Biophysics by 1980. He currently maintains a laboratory both at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich and at The Scripps Research Institute, in Louisiana Jolla, California.
He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh (1997-2000), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (where he was an Honorary Professor) and Yonsei University.
During his graduate studies Wüthrich started out working with electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and the subject of his Ph. Doctorate thesis was "the catalytic activity of copper compounds in autoxidation reactions".
During his time as a postdoc in Berkeley he began working with the newly developed and related technique of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the hydration of metal complexes. When Wüthrich joined the Bell Labs, he was put in charge of one of the first superconducting Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, and started studying the structure and dynamics of proteins.
He has pursued this line of research ever since.
After returning to Switzerland, Wüthrich collaborated with among others nobel laureate Richard R. Ernst on developing the first two-dimensional Nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, and established the nuclear Overhauser effect as a convenient way of measuring distances within proteins. This research later led to the complete assignment of resonances for among others the bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and glucagon. In October 2010, Wüthrich participated in the United States of America Science and Engineering Festival"s Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students will get to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize–winning scientist over a brown-bag lunch.
Wüthrich is also a member on the United States of America Science and Engineering Festival"s Advisory Board.
Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Society London (foreign member), Indian National Science Academy. Member: National Academy of Sciences (foreign associate), Swiss Academy Engineering Sciences, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Korean Magnetic Resonance Society (honorary), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Society Japan (honorary), European Academy Arts & Humanities (honorary), International Society Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (honorary), Royal Society Chemistry (honorary), Japanese Bio-chemical Society (honorary), National Magnetic Resonance Society India (honorary), Swiss Chemical Society (honorary), Royal Society Edinburgh (honorary), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (honorary), Latvian Academy of Sciences (honorary), Indian Biophysics Society (honorary), American Academy Arts & Sciences (honorary foreign member), Academia Europea, European Molecular Biology Organization.
Married Marianne Briner, 1963. Children: Bernhard Andrew, Karin Lynn.