Nobel laureate to speak

Günter Blobel won a Nobel Prize for his pioneering research on the inner workings of the cell, but when he visits the university this month, he’ll discuss another of his passions — restoring the historic German city of Dresden.

Blobel will visit March 29-30 as a guest of the UW–Madison International Institute. His free, public talk, “Dresden: Progress in the Reconstruction of its Historic Center,” will be Thursday, March 29, at 3:30 p.m. at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.

Blobel received the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for his pioneering research on the inner workings of the cell, helping explain the molecular mechanism behind cystic fibrosis and certain hereditary diseases.

A professor of cell biology at Rockefeller University, Blobel is also founder of the Friends of Dresden charity. As a child, Blobel witnessed the World War II firebombing of Dresden, which nearly destroyed the city. He has donated much of his Nobel Prize money to the friends organization, which supports the reconstruction, restoration and preservation of Dresden’s artistic and architectural legacy, including the famous Frauenkirche or Church of Our Lady and Dresden’s Synagogue.

“I admire him as one of many Germans who came to the UW–Madison to continue and finish his education in medicine and who went on to a brilliant career in the United States,” says Klaus Berghahn, director of the Center for German and European Studies. “I am proud that this German-American received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1999 for his research, which he had started in Madison and I applaud him for donating most of his Nobel award for the rebuilding of Dresden’s Frauenkirche.”

Blobel was born in Waltersdorf, Germany, in 1936. In 1960, he received a medical degree from the University of Tübingen and then went on to study at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the UW–Madison where he worked with Van R. Potter. He earned a doctorate in oncology in 1967. He has fond memories of the town he calls his “beloved Madison.”

In addition to his public talk on Thursday afternoon, Blobel will speak on “Protein Targeting” at noon, 125 Biochemistry Building, Henry Mall.

The International Institute programs co-sponsoring the event are the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy and the European Studies Alliance, a consortium of four area studies programs including the Center for German and European Studies. Blobel’s visit is also being co-sponsored by the Genetics-Biotechnology Center.