Famous 21st Century German Scientists

John B. Goodenough is an American solid-state physicist and materials scientist. He is credited with developing the lithium-ion battery. In 2019, he became the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize when he was honored with the prestigious award for his work on lithium-ion batteries. He is also a recipient of the Copley Medal and the National Medal of Science.

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is a German developmental biologist. She studied at the University of Tübingen where she earned a Ph.D. for her research on protein–DNA interactions. Together with biologist Eric Wieschaus and geneticist Edward B. Lewis, she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995. She is also a recipient of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. 

Joachim Sauer is a German professor emeritus of theoretical and physical chemistry at the prestigious Humboldt University of Berlin. Sauer is an active research scientist in computational and quantum chemistry. His work has helped understand the structures and activities of catalysts like zeolites. Joachim Sauer has won several prestigious awards such as the Schrödinger Medal and Liebig Medal.

Born Vera Buchthal, Steve Shirley moved from Germany to Britain as a child refugee during the Nazi regime. Later, going by the name Stephanie Brook, she began learning coding. Battling a male-dominated workplace environment, she changed her name to Steve. The celebrated scientist now runs a charitable foundation.

Sucharit Bhakdi is a Thai-German retired microbiologist. Although a reputed scientist with a number of prestigious awards under his belt, Bhakdi achieved infamy during the COVID-19 pandemic when he claimed that the pandemic was fake and that the vaccines were being administered to decimate the world's population. Sucharit Bhakdi is the recipient of the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize among other awards.

Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim is a German chemist, television presenter, science communicator, and YouTuber. A multi-talented personality, Nguyen-Kim has won many prestigious awards such as the Grimme Online Award, Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Science Journalism, Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award, and Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication.

Nobel Prize-winning German-American biophysicist Joachim Frank is best known for developing single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM. He has been associated with Columbia University as a professor for a long time and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. He has also helped ascertain the structure of ribosomes.

Hamed Abdel-Samad is a German-Egyptian author and political scientist. A member of the Society of the Muslim Brothers during his university days, Hamed Abdel-Samad later questioned his own beliefs and published a controversial book titled My Farewell from Heaven, which he said was neither a call to renounce the Muslim faith nor an attack on his culture.

German-American neuroscientist Thomas C. Südhof was a gifted musician in his early days, having mastered instruments such as the bassoon. He later won a Nobel Prize for his research on the chemical signaling in neurons, which helped later scientists understand neurological conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.

Nobel Prize-winning German physicist Gerd Binnig invented the scanning tunneling microscope, with fellow Nobel laureate Heinrich Rohrer. As a child, he devoted a lot of time to music, playing the violin and performing for an orchestra. He spent most of his scientific career with the IBM research team.

Remembered for his research on rapid chemical reactions, Nobel Prize-winning German physicist Manfred Eigen was born to a musician father and was initially interested in the piano. Eigen was part of the German army during World War II and later escaped the Soviets to join the University of Göttingen.

Ursula Franklin was a German-Canadian research physicist, metallurgist, educator, and author. She is best remembered for her association with the University of Toronto, where she taught for more than 40 years. Ursula Franklin was also renowned for her work in promoting human rights, for which she received the prestigious Pearson Medal of Peace.

Harald Lesch is a German astronomer, physicist, author, and natural philosopher. He serves as a professor of physics at the LMU and teaches natural philosophy at the Munich University of Philosophy. He is credited with educating complex physical or philosophical issues to public with the help of his television programs. He is the recipient of the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award.

Nobel Prize-winning German biochemist Robert Huber crystallized a photosynthesis-related intramembrane protein and thus developed the 3-D structure of a photosynthetic reaction center. He has been associated with Cardiff University and is a co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry. He has also been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Hartmut Michel is a German biochemist best known for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for  determination of the first crystal structure of an integral membrane protein. A respected biochemist, Hartmut Michel also received several other prestigious awards like the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the Bijvoet Medal, and the Max Delbruck Prize. 

Johann Deisenhofer is a German biochemist best known for winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry along with Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel in 1988. Deisenhofer is currently associated with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he works as a professor in the Department of Biophysics.