Biography of Michel-Beyerle
As a professor of physical chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle was particularly interested in biological charge-transfer processes. She thus contributed to elucidating the structure of the photosynthetic reaction centre.
Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle was born in Kiel on 20 August 1935. Her father, Konrad Beyerle (1900–1979), was an engineer known for developing a gas centrifuge for isotope separation. After completing her school-leaving examinations, Michel-Beyerle studied chemistry at the Georg-August University of Göttingen from 1955 to 1957. She interrupted her studies to undertake a research stay at Columbia University in New York (USA) as a recipient of an Atomic Energy Commission scholarship, then continued her chemistry studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
For her diploma thesis, she conducted research at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University from 1960 to 1962. She received her doctorate there in 1964 for her thesis “On the electrochemistry of indium”.
From 1965 to 1974, Michel-Beyerle worked as a research assistant at the Institute of physical chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), in the working group led by Heinz Gerischer (1919–1994), a recognised expert in electrochemistry and doctoral supervisor of Nobel laureate Gerhard Ertl (born 1936). Michel-Beyerle completed her habilitation in chemistry at TUM in 1974 and was appointed associate professor of physical chemistry there in 1980.
Michel-Beyerle was fascinated by charge transfer in biological systems, particularly in plant chloroplasts. In 1981, she initiated a Collaborative Research Centre at TUM devoted to the fundamental processes of photosynthesis. Michel-Beyerle made an important contribution to the isolation and X-ray crystallographic analysis of the photosynthetic reaction centre, for which Johann Deisenhofer (born 1943), Robert Huber (born 1937) and Hartmut Michel (born 1948) received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988.
Michel-Beyerle remained active in research even after her retirement in 2000. From 2003 to 2007, for example, she coordinated the EU research programme “Control of assembly and charge transport dynamics of immobilized DNA”. In 2008, she took up a visiting professorship at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Michel-Beyerle’s successful career as a researcher is reflected in 170 publications bearing her name. She has also received numerous awards. In 2000, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; in 2006, the Bavarian Maximilian Order, the Free State of Bavaria’s highest award for outstanding achievements in science and the arts; in 2009, the Bavarian Constitutional Medal in Silver; and in 2013, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal.
Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle remains active in research. At the time this biography was written, she was setting off for an extended research stay in the USA.
Literature
Women at the Technical University of Munich, brochure published on the occasion of the Liesel Beckmann Symposium, 2007, publisher: Institute for Advanced Science Prof. W. A. Herrmann
https://www.emeriti-of-excellence.tum.de/eoe/tum-emeriti-of-excellence-eoe/portraits-a-z/maria-elisabeth-michel-beyerle/
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-Elisabeth_Michel-Beyerle
Authors
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Ehlers
Prof. Dr. Heribert Offermanns
Editorial work
Dr. Uta Neubauer
Project management
Dr. Karin J. Schmitz (GDCh-public relations)
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