Kurt Wüthrich: Professional Profile

Kurt Wüthrich is currently Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Professor of Structural Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA and Professor of Biophysics at the ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests are in molecular structural biology, and in structural genomics. His specialty is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with biological macromolecules, where he contributed the NMR method of three-dimensional structure determination of proteins and nucleic acids in solution. The Wüthrich groups have solved more than 70 NMR structures of proteins and nucleic acids, including the immunosuppression system cyclophilin A−cyclosporin A, the homeodomain−operator DNA transcriptional regulatory system, and prion proteins from a variety of species.

Kurt Wüthrich was born in Switzerland on October 4, 1938, is married to Marianne Briner, and has two children, Bernhard Andrew and Karin Lynn. He studied chemistry, physics and mathematics at the University of Bern from 57−62, obtained the Eidgenössiches Turn- und Sportlehrerdiplom and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry with Prof. Silvio Fallab at the University of Basel in 64, was a postdoctoral fellow in Basel (Prof. S. Fallab), at the University of California in Berkeley, CA, USA (Prof. R.E. Connick) and at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, USA (Dr. R.G. Shulman) before joining the ETH Zürich in 69 (Privatdozent 70, Assistant Professor 72, Associate Professor 76, Professor of Biophysics 80, Chairman of the Department of Biology 95−00). Since 2001 he shares his time between the ETH Zürich and The Scripps Research Institute. Kurt Wüthrich’s achievements have been recognized by the Prix Louis Jeantet de Médecine, the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and by a number of other awards and honorary degrees.