Reinhard Lipowsky

Reinhard Lipowsky is a theoretician who worked  on a wide range of topics in chemical and biological physics, with a focus on synthetic biosystems. His main achievements are in the areas of interfacial phase transitions and wetting phenomena, biomembranes and vesicles, as well as molecular motors and nanomachines. In the latter area, he has developed a multiscale approach that starts from the properties of single motors to describe their cooperative behavior during cargo transport by small motor teams as well  as cargo traffic by a large number of motors. Recently, his focus is on the remodeling of membrane shape and topology in the context of bottom-up synthetic biology.

In general, one important objective of his research is to understand the "hidden dimensions of self-organization", i.e., how spatio-temporal patterns and remodelling processes on mesoscopic scales arise from the molecular building blocks and their interactions. To achieve such an understanding, he combines analytical theory with computer simulations and experimental studies; read morehere.

Reinhard Lipowsky proposed two International Max Planck Research Schools, one on "Biomimetic Systems'' and one on "Multiscale Biosystems'', and acted as the speaker for both schools from 2000 until 2021. He was an active member of the MaxSynBio consortium from 2014 until 2021 and is now a fellow of the Max Planck School "Matter to Life". He also continues to be a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and to have honorary professorships at the University of Potsdam and at the Humboldt University in Berlin.