Prof. em. Dr. Gerd Folkers

Gerd Folkers has been Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the ETH Zurich since April 1st, 1991. On 1 October 2004 he has taken the chair of Collegium Helveticum, the interdisciplinary institution, which - starting in autumn - will be run jointly by the University of Zurich and the ETH Zurich.

He was born on the March 25, 1953 in Andernach/Rhein in Germany. He studied pharmacy at the University of Bonn. Under H.J. Roth he earned his Ph.D in Bonn on structure activity relationships of desapurines. In 1983 he transferred together with his mentor to the University of Tübingen, where he completed habilitation in 1989 in pharmaceutical chemistry. During a stay in Bern, Switzerland, he studied new research methods in computer aided molecular design. He expanded his knowledge during other stays abroad, especially with T. Blundell at the Birkbeck College in London and E. Meyer at Texas A&M University.

The focus of his research work is the molecular interaction between drugs and its binding sites in vivo. He is particularly interested in the strong integration of computer aided modeling and relevant biochemical/biophysical experiments. Besides the research on molecular mechanism of ""conventional"" nucleoside therapeutics against virus infection and cancer, his special interest has shifted to immuno therapeutics.

He is editor of the journals "QSAR" and "Pharmaceutica Acta Helvetiae", author and editor of diverse scientific books, president of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Collegium Helveticum, vice president of the ""Schweizerischen Gesellschaft der Pharmazeutischen Wissenschaften"", member of the executive board "Schweizerischen Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften", as well as a member of the board of many international scientific societies.