Prof. em. Dr. Hans Hengartner

Hans Hengartner was full Professor of Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zurich and the ETH Zurich from 1994 to 2007. Together with Professor R.M. Zinkernagel he has headed the Institute for Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital of Zurich since 1980. He was Chairman of the Department of Biology at the ETH Zurich from 2000 to February 2005.

Prof. Hengartner was born on February 26, 1944 and is from Waldkirch SG. He studied biochemistry at the ETH Zurich. After receiving his doctorate at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the ETH Zurich, he spent two years (1973-1975) at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. From 1975 to 1980 he worked as an independent researcher at the Basel Institute for Immunology under Professor N. Jerne. In 1978 he was a visiting scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

The main focus of his research was on cellular and molecular immunology with application in animal experiments: investigations on the molecular mechanisms of cytolysis mediated by T-cells, their biological role in bacterial and viral infections, autoimmunity and tumor control; analysis, control and regulation of antiviral, neutralizing antibodies with transgenic mice; examination of the tolerances of B and T-cells. In 1987 he received the Götz Prize, in 1988 the Cloetta Prize, in 1997 the Ernst Jung Prize, and 1998 the Otto Nägeli Prize.