Volker ter Meulen

Volker ter Meulen (born December 17, 1933 in Osnabrück ) is a German medic. From 2003 to 2010 he was President of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences and is known for pioneering work in neurovirology.

Life

Volker ter Meulen graduated from 1955 to 1960 his medical studies at the Universities of Münster , Innsbruck , Kiel and Göttingen and received his doctorate in 1960 at the University of Göttingen. From 1961 to 1963 he was a medical assistant in gynecology , surgery , internal medicine and dermatology . From 1963 to 1965 Volker ter Meulen was a doctor at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia , USA before he completed his habilitation in 1968 at the University of Göttingen. A one-year visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley followed in 1969. Finally, in 1975, he was appointed to the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg , where he taught and researched as a full professor of clinical virology and immunology. From 1975 to 2003 he was a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Virology and Immunobiology at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg. He was also President of the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC) from 2007 to 2010.

In 1984, Volker ter Meulen was accepted as a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , where he was elected President of the Leopoldina on February 13, 2003 to succeed Benno Parthier . He has been a former president since 2010. In 2013 he took over the position of one of the two chairmen of the Inter-Academy Panel , an association of more than 100 science academies worldwide - including the Leopoldina, for three years .

In his scientific research, he was mainly concerned with the pathogenesis and immune reaction of viral infections of the central nervous system . He mainly dealt with measles viruses , as well as coronaviruses and the SIV viruses (and the neural effects of an AIDS virus infection in humans). He identified the measles pathogen as the cause of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and inclusion body encephalitis (MIBE). He developed a rat model to study viral inflammatory diseases of the nervous system and, through his studies, demonstrated for the first time that viruses can trigger autoimmune diseases. Together with his colleagues, he was also able to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which the measles virus inhibits the immune system (the envelope protein of the virus, which is expressed on the surface of the host cell during reproduction, inhibits neighboring T lymphocytes).

He also excelled in the field of science policy and advocated the promotion of prion research. He sits on the board of the Bavarian Prions Research Association .

Awards and honors

• 1984 - Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 1985 - Aronson Prize from the Berlin Senate
• 1990 - Member of the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt
• 1992 - Max Planck Research Prize together with Opendra Narayan , Johns Hopkins University
• 1992 - Merit Cross on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1992 - Full member of the Academia Europaea
• 1994 - Robert Pfleger Research Award together with Klaus Rajewsky
• 2000 - Emil von Behring Prize from the University of Marburg
• 2000 - Bavarian Order of Merit
• 2000 - Pioneer Award from the International Society of NeuroVirology
• 2002 - German AIDS Prize of the Asmann Foundation ( Düsseldorf )
• 2002 - Honorary member of the Società Italiana di Virologia
• 2003 - Gold Ernst Jung Medal for Medicine
• 2003 - Pro Meritis Scientiae et Litterarum awarded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art
• 2006 - Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
• 2006 - Bene Merenti in Gold, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg
• 2008 - Great Federal Cross of Merit
• 2008 - Honorary doctorate from the University of Freiburg
• 2009 - Franz von Rinecker Gold Medal from the Medical Faculty of the University of Würzburg
• 2009 - Robert Koch Gold Medal
• 2009 - Admission to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2010 - Honorary member of the Leopoldina
• 2011 - Honorary membership of the German Society for Virology
• 2011 - Honor Cup of the City of Halle, Silver City Plaque of the City of Würzburg
• 2018 - Order of Merit of the State of Saxony-Anhalt
• 2018 - Honorary doctorate from the Charité

Web links

• Recognition on the occasion of the Robert Koch Medal
• Literature by and about Volker ter Meulen in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Volker ter Meulen in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
2. ↑ Volker ter Meulen: President of the global science academy. Deutsches Ärzteblatt from March 15, 2013
3. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Volker ter Meulen (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 19, 2016.
4. ↑ Awarding of the honorary cup from Halle to ter Meulen ( memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Prime Minister Haseloff presented the Order of Merit to ter Meulen and Parthier
6. ↑ Manuela Zingl: Doctoral certificates, golden doctorates and honorary doctorates ceremoniously awarded. Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, press release from June 19, 2018 at Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw-online.de), accessed on June 19, 2018.