Max Delbrück

Biophysicist (1906-1981) · Germany · Academics · Died at 74

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A physicist who walked into biology and rewired the whole discipline. Delbrück made viruses - specifically the bacteria-eating kind - into the tool that cracked open how genes actually work.

Scientists Academic Physics Biology Germany Europe 20th Century

A life in dates

1981Died9 March 19811978“The particular thing about science is to combine that [the dreams of obtaining power] with a retreat from the world.”In their wordsInterview with Max Delbruck (1978), p. 88. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, Pasadena, California.Read the whole statement

1969“The scientist addresses an infinitesimal audience of fellow composers. His message is not devoid of universality but it's universality is disembodied and anonymous.”In their wordsNobel Prize acceptance speech (1969)Read the whole statement

Louisa Gross Horwitz PrizeAwardNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineAward1968Mendel MedalAward1967Foreign Member of the Royal SocietyAwardGregor Mendel MedalAward1964Kimber Genetics AwardAward1949“Any living cell carries with it the experiences of a billion years of experimentation by its ancestors. You cannot expect to explain so wise an old bird in a few simple words.”In their wordsDecember 1949"Life: The Magic Puzzle Box" (Dec. 1949) Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 38. pp. 173-190.Read the whole statement

1906Born4 September 1906

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Maxdelbrück-cr

Copenhagen spring conference 1932

Max Delbruck (cropped)

Max Delbruck

Luria Delbruck 1953

S.Luria M.Delbruck

Bohr,Niels Commemoration Meeting 1963 Copenhagen no annotation

Bohr,Niels Commemoration Meeting 1963 Copenhagen

In their own words 3

Max Delbrück

3 statements, newest first

The particular thing about science is to combine that [the dreams of obtaining power] with a retreat from the world.
1978, Interview with Max Delbruck (1978), p. 88. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, Pasadena, California., Own words
The scientist addresses an infinitesimal audience of fellow composers. His message is not devoid of universality but it's universality is disembodied and anonymous.
1969, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1969), Own words
Any living cell carries with it the experiences of a billion years of experimentation by its ancestors. You cannot expect to explain so wise an old bird in a few simple words.
Dec 1949, "Life: The Magic Puzzle Box" (Dec. 1949) Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 38. pp. 173-190., Own words

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Awards

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1969

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize1969

Mendel Medal1968

Foreign Member of the Royal Society1967

Gregor Mendel Medal1967

Kimber Genetics Award1964

EMBO Membership

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Family

Parents

Max Delbrück

Partners

Spouse Mary Adeline Delbrück

Child Tobias Delbruck

Sibling Emmi Bonhoeffer

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About this person

Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück was born September 4, 1906, and trained as a physicist in Germany before crossing into biology in the late 1930s with a simple conviction: genes were physical objects and could be studied as such. He convinced other physical scientists to follow, turning bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacteria - into a precision instrument for genetic research. In 1945 he formed the Phage Group with Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey, and over the next two decades they pulled apart how viruses replicate and how genetic information moves. The three shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for those discoveries. Delbrück died March 9, 1981, having launched molecular biology by insisting that the most mysterious problems in life could be solved with clear physics and a good virus.

Country

Germany