Peter greeting

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Peter Gruss in 2011

Peter Gruss (born June 28, 1949 in Alsfeld ) is a German cell biologist . From 2002 to 2014 he was President of the Max Planck Society . Since January 1st, 2017 he has been President of the OIST Graduate University in Okinawa , Japan.

Live and act

Gruss grew up in Alsfeld. He graduated from high school in 1968 at the Schwalmschule Treysa / Hessen (now Schwalmstadt ) in the mathematical and natural science branch. He then studied biology at the TH Darmstadt . After receiving his diploma in 1973, Gruss conducted research from 1974 to 1977 at the Institute for Virus Research of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg for his doctorate on a tumor virus. 1977 followed the doctorate at the University of Heidelberg . He then continued to work as an assistant at the Institute for Virus Research at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, and from 1978 to 1982 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda , Maryland , (USA) on tumor virus transcription.

In 1982 he returned to Heidelberg, where he became a professor at the Institute for Microbiology (until 1986) and introduced English as the language of the seminar. From 1983 he was a member of the board of directors of the Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH). During this time he organized several international conferences. He has been a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society since 1986; From 1986 until his retirement in 2014 he was director of the “Molecular Cell Biology” department at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry . Since 1990 he has also been an honorary professor at the University of Göttingen .

Gruss put his focus on the processes of gene regulation . He was particularly interested in the genetic and cell biological building blocks for switching genetic programs on and off in tumor viruses and during embryonic development. In 1981 he was one of the first to discover enhancers (with the SV40 ). In experiments with mice, he succeeded in identifying important controlling genes (so-called Pax genes ) that control the development of various organs. In a study of the pancreas, he identified genes that contribute to the development of insulin-producing Langerhans cells . On this basis it was also possible to differentiate stem cells into insulin-producing cells.

On June 14, 2002 he became President of the Max Planck Society. He was elected by the Senate of the Max Planck Society on November 23, 2001 for an initial term of office from 2002 to 2008 and was confirmed on June 28, 2007 for a second term of office until June 2014. Gruss was a member of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG between 2008 and 2014 .

Since the beginning of 2015, Gruss has been building up the new Siemens Technology & Innovation Council (STIC) at Siemens, an advisory board that will deal with technologies and innovations that will become important for Siemens over a period of more than ten years. Gruss determines the orientation of the committee and is also its head. Gruss was also a member of the supervisory board of the Swiss biotech company Actelion from 2011 to 2017 .

Gruss is married and has two children.

Company formation

Gruss also campaigned for the application of his findings: In 1997, together with Herbert Jäckle , Wolfgang Driever and Herbert Stadler, he founded DeveloGen AG in Göttingen, which has been part of Evotec since 2010 . The company was dedicated to the development of new treatments for metabolic and endocrinological diseases with a focus on diabetes .

Acting as President of the Max Planck Society

When he took office, Gruss was seen in the press as a “maker of American style”, and Der Spiegel called him “a modest high-flyer”.

In Gruss' inaugural address, the focus was on the financial leeway for research: he called for the introduction of research-specific collective bargaining law in order to be able to attract the world's best scientists. Furthermore, Gruss spoke out in favor of reliable financial framework conditions: "Only reasonable, fixed rates of increase for the budget of the MPG over a longer period can guarantee planning security." After the increases in the budget of the MPG in the previous years were lower than requested, there was a risk of cuts in the institute budgets.

Gruss repeatedly pointed out that the appointment of directors of the Max Planck Society takes place in competition with the world's leading research institutions:

"At Max-Planck, we don't compete with the average, but with the Harvards, Cambridges and ETH Zurichs of this world"

In international comparison, Germany is not competitive in terms of salaries; The Max Planck Society, however, is in a position to largely compensate for this disadvantage thanks to the support from the Max Planck Funding Foundation and its globally known planning security.

A first step in improving the financial conditions for top scientists from abroad is the Scientific Freedom Initiative , which has been offering non-university research institutions new financial freedoms since 2009.

During the term of office of Gruss, several institutes were reorganized or newly founded: The MPI for Research on Collective Goods and the MPI for Ornithology were elevated to an institute by a research group, the MPI for History was reorganized as the MPI for multi-religious and multi-ethnic systems, the MPI for the Biology of Aging and the MPI for the Science of Light were newly founded. With the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience , the first institute of the Max Planck Society outside of Europe was founded; it is funded by the state of Florida and the local county. Furthermore, the MPI for Metals Research was transferred to the MPI for Intelligent Systems and a new branch of the institute was founded at the Tübingen location.

As a new subsidiary of the Max Planck Society, the Lead Discovery Center was founded in Dortmund in 2008, with the aim of improving the technology transfer of newly developed active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The international networking is particularly successful: After the establishment of the institute in Florida was announced as a "model", the MPG received inquiries from Canada and South Korea regarding the establishment of institutes according to a report by Spiegel. 25 percent of the directors in the Max Planck Society have a foreign passport.

In an interview, Gruss explained a new strategy for the establishment of so-called “Max Planck Centers” for cooperation with foreign research institutions that already exist in Shanghai, Buenos Aires and New Delhi, among others.

In January 2013. tried greeting as president of MPG, affect one at the University of Dusseldorf performed procedure for the withdrawal of the doctoral degree by Annette Schavan in favor of the then Minister of Science to take.

Reports from the Max Planck Society

Between 2007 and 2011, Gruss was the editor of a series of non-fiction books that appear as "Reports of the Max Planck Society":

Memberships in academies

Gruss has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2003, and a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences since 2004 . He is also a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen (since 1996) and the Academy of German Natural Scientists Leopoldina (since 1995). He has also been a member of the Academia Europaea since 1989 .

Offices in scientific committees (selection)

Prizes and awards

The US Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) temporarily included him in its database of highly cited researchers in the field of "Molecular Biology and Genetics". The database only includes around 250 most cited scientists in the world from each subject.

Publications (selection)

  • Biotechnology as a future factor , in: Made in Germany '21 - Innovations for a just future. Ed .: F.-W. Steinmeier, M. Machnig., Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2004, pp. 199–210
  • Open access to science and culture. In: Science. Volume 303, No. 5656, 2004, pp. 311-312
  • Human ES cells in Europe. In: Science. Volume 301, 2003, p. 1017
  • Marquardt, T., R. Ashery-Padan, N. Andrejewski, R. Scardigli, F. Guillemot, P. Gruss: Pax6 is required for the Multi-Potent State of Retinal Progenitor Cells. In: Cell. Volume 105, No. 1, 2001, pp. 43-55
  • Cecconi, F., G. Alvarez-Bolado, BI Meyer, KA Roth, P. Gruss: Apaf1 (CED-4 homolog) regulates programmed cell death in mammalian development. In: Cell. Volume 94, No. 6, 1998, pp. 727-737
  • St-Onge, L., B. Sosa-Pineda, K. Chowdhury, A. Mansouri, P. Gruss: Pax6 is required for differentiation of glucagon-producing a-cells in mouse pancreas. In: Nature. Volume 387, No. 6631, 1997, pp. 406-409
  • Sosa-Pineda, B., K. Chowdhury, M. Torres, G. Oliver, P. Gruss: The Pax4 gene is essential for differentiation of insulin-producing b cells in the mammalian pancreas. In: Nature. Volume 386, No. 6623, 1997, pp. 399-402
  • Walther, C., P. Gruss: Pax-6, a murine paired box gene, is expressed in the developing CNS. In: Development. Volume 113, No. 4, 1991, pp. 1435-1449
  • Kessel, M., P. Gruss: Homeotic transformations of murine vertebrae and concommitant alteration of Hox codes induced by retinoic acid. In: Cell. Volume 67, No. 1, 1991, pp. 89-104
  • Schöler, HR , T. Ciesiolka, P. Gruss: A nexus between Oct-4 and E1A: implications for gene regulation in embryonic stem cells. In: Cell. Volume 66, No. 2, 1991, pp. 291-304

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Peter Gruss to be the new President of the OIST Graduate University in Japan, message on www.mpg.de December 15, 2016 OIST equals "Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology"
  2. ↑ Dr. Peter Gruss Appointed Next President of OIST Graduate University, notification from OIST December 15, 2016
  3. ↑ see global Siemens website, Supervisory Board , status: November 15, 2014 ( memo from November 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ According to media reports, the supervisory board is being restructured, Peter Gruss is leaving. The exact date is not mentioned in the report, see Supervisory Board is being rebuilt: Siemens boss Kaeser can look forward to millions in salary increases. On: focus.de from December 3, 2014.
  5. ↑ see Peter Gruss looking for trends for Siemens, in: Produktion.de, January 19, 2015, accessed on February 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ see develogen / history .
  7. ↑ Eckart Henning , Marion Kazemi : Chronicle of the Kaiser Wilhelm / Max Planck Society for the Promotion of Science 1911–2011 - data and sources , Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 2011, page 32
  8. ↑ Jörg Blech, Olaf Stampf : In the stranglehold of the bureaucracy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 2002 ( online ).
  9. ^ Dpa: The new President of the Max Planck Society. In: FAZ.net . June 14, 2002, accessed December 19, 2014 .
  10. ↑ New MPG President warns of cuts , in: Physik Journal 1 (2002), No. 7/8, page 10.
  11. ^ A b c Andreas Sentker and Martin Spiewak: Research Policy : Thinking Needs Freedom. In: zeit.de. September 25, 2008, accessed December 19, 2014 .
  12. ↑ "Germany should invent, not imitate". In: tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved December 19, 2014 .
  13. ^ Eckart Henning , Marion Kazemi : Chronicle of the Kaiser Wilhelm / Max Planck Society for the Promotion of Science 1911–2011 - data and sources , Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 2011, page 33.
  14. ↑ New founding of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems http://www.mpg.de/1157498/intelligente_systeme
  15. ↑ www.lead-discovery.de
  16. ↑ Elite expands abroad . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 2008 ( online ).
  17. ↑ By Hans-Christoph Keller: Cutting-edge research in Germany: "If you stop, you fall behind". In: Spiegel Online . October 14, 2010, accessed December 19, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel , July 25, 2014 [1] ; Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 25, 2014 [2]
  19. ^ Highly Cited Researcher database . .
  20. ↑ Peter Gruss awarded the Harnack Medal, press release from the Max Planck Society, accessed June 23, 2017
  21. ↑ Seehofer awards ten distinguished personalities with the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art. Retrieved December 8, 2012 ( memento of December 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  22. ↑ High Chinese distinction for Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker , in: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft from January 19, 2010, accessed on January 20, 2010.
  23. ↑ deutscher-zukunftspreis.de from 1999.
personal data
SURNAME Greetings, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cell biologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Alsfeld , Central Hesse