Erhard Geissler

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Erhard Geißler (born  December 17, 1930 in Leipzig ) is a German geneticist , molecular biologist and bioethicist . From 1965 to 1971 he worked as a professor of genetics and institute director at the University of Rostock and then until 1987 as a department head at the Central Institute for Molecular Biology in Berlin-Buch and from 1992 to 2000 at its successor, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine . In addition, from 1983 he worked for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Life

Erhard Geißler was born in Leipzig in 1930 . He graduated from high school in 1950 and then studied biology at the University of Leipzig until 1955 . He then worked as an assistant, senior assistant and department head at the Institute for Experimental Cancer Research of the German Academy of Sciences . During this time he did his doctorate in 1959 at the Humboldt University in Berlin , where he also received his habilitation five years later . In 1965 he received a call on a full professor of genetics at the University of Rostock, where he in the same year, the head of the Institute for Microbial Genetics took over.

Six years later he moved to the Central Institute for Molecular Biology (ZIM) in Berlin-Buch , where he was head of the department for somatic cell genetics and, from 1980, for virology. From 1983 he was an advisor to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In 1987 he gave up his position at ZIM in order to devote himself to questions of peace and disarmament policy , among other things as part of regular research trips to Stockholm lasting several weeks . At the successor institution of the ZIM, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) established in 1992 , he headed the bioethics research group from the establishment of the MDC until his retirement in 2000.

Scientific work

Erhard Geißler's research focused on radiation biology , virology , microbe and cell genetics as well as social , ethical and philosophical issues in the biosciences. In the German Democratic Republic he was chairman of the Society for Pure and Applied Biophysics from 1968 to 1972 and of the Society for Physical and Mathematical Biology from 1972 to 1974. From 1972 to 1990 he was a member of the executive committee and in 1990 president of Urania, which was dissolved in the same year . He edited four books on biological weapons and disarmament topics for SIPRI .

Fonts (selection)

  • Investigations to characterize the mechanism of the photodynamic effect of 3,4-benzopyrene and ultraviolet rays on yeast cells. Berlin [1959], DNB 480923051 (Dissertation Humboldt University Berlin, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, July 17, 1959, 125 pages).
  • Bacteriophages - Objects of Modern Genetics (= WTB Scientific Pocket Books , Volume 6, Medicine Series ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962, OCLC 14607452
  • Studies on the mechanism of induction of lysogenic bacteria. Berlin 1964, DNB 482309172 (habilitation thesis, Humboldt University Berlin, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, June 10, 1964, 114 pages).
  • Biological weapons - not in Hitler's arsenal. Biological and toxin weapons in Germany from 1915 to 1945 (= Studies on Peace Research , Volume 13). Lit, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-2955-3 .
  • Anthrax and the failure of the secret services (= contemporary history edition ). Homilius, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89706-889-3 .
  • Drosophila or the temptation. A GDR geneticist against cancer and biological weapons. BWV Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8305-2594-3 .
  • AIDS and its pathogens - a web of hypotheses, facts and conspiracy theories . In: Andreas Anton , Michael Schetsche , Michael Walter (Eds.): Konspiration. Sociology of Conspiracy Thinking . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014, pp. 113-138, ISBN 978-3-531-19323-6 .
  • 100 years of anthrax - from "epidemic agent" to "weapon of mass disappearance". The lasting effect of disinformation and misinterpretation. In: Fuchs-Kittowski, Frank ; Kriesel, Werner (ed.): Computer science and society. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski . Frankfurt a. M., Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Vienna: Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, PL Academic Research 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-66719-4 (print), E- ISBN 978-3-653 -06277-9 (e-book).

As editor

  • Biological and Toxin Weapons Today. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1986.
  • Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention by Confidence-Building Measures. Oxford 1990.
  • Prevention of a Biological and Toxin Arms Race and the Responsibility of Scientists. Berlin 1991 (as co-editor).
  • Control of Dual-Threat Agents: The Vaccines for Peace Program. Oxford 1994.
  • How much genetics do humans need? The old dreams of geneticists and their methods today. Konstanz 1994 (as co-editor).
  • Conversion of Former BTW Facilities. Dortrecht / Boston / London 1998 (as co-editor).
  • Biological and Toxin Weapons: Research, Development and Use from the Middle Ages to 1945. Oxford 1999 (as co-editor).

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Geissler, Erhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geneticist, molecular biologist and bioethicist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th December 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig