Regine Kahmann facts for kids

Regine Kahmann is a famous German scientist. She studies tiny living things like bacteria and fungi, and how they affect plants. She was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, from 2000 to 2019. In 2020, she became a special member of the Royal Society, which is a very important science group in the UK.

Kahmann's early work focused on microbiology, which is the study of very small living things. She later started studying a fungus called corn smut (Ustilago maydis). This fungus causes diseases in maize, also known as corn plants. Corn smut is now used by scientists to understand how fungi cause plant diseases.

Early Life

Regine Kahmann was born in Staßfurt, Germany, on October 20, 1948. Her parents were farmers. In 1952, when she was young, her family moved from East Germany to West Germany. They settled in a place called Rassau.

Career Journey

After finishing school in 1967, Regine Kahmann studied biology at the University of Göttingen. She focused on microbiology. From 1972 to 1974, she earned her doctorate degree. She studied the structure of a type of DNA.

After her doctorate, she worked in the US at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. There, she became a Junior Group Leader in 1976. From 1980 to 1982, she was a research assistant in Germany.

In 1982, she started her own research group in Berlin. She later became a professor of genetics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1992. In 2000, Kahmann became a scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. She also became a professor at the Philipps University in 2001. She continued her work there until 2019.

Amazing Research

Regine Kahmann's research focuses on plant diseases at a molecular level. This means she studies how tiny parts of living things, like genes, cause plants to get sick. She looks at how microbes and viruses infect plant cells. She also studies which genes play a role in these infections.

One of her important discoveries was about a virus called "phage mu." This virus infects many types of bacteria. Regine Kahmann showed that the virus decides which host it can infect by changing a specific part of its DNA. This change is like flipping a switch. Scientists consider her work on how this process happens to be a major scientific achievement.

A big part of her lab's research is studying corn smut (Ustilago maydis). This is a parasitic fungus that makes tumors grow on corn plants. Her team investigates how this fungus infects corn and causes disease.

Academy Memberships

Regine Kahmann has been invited to join many important science groups. These memberships show that her work is highly respected by other scientists.

• 1991 European Molecular Biology Organization
• 1998 Academia Europaea
• 1999 Bavarian Academy of Sciences
• 2001 Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2008 German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2020 Royal Society (foreign member)
• 2021 National Academy of Sciences
• 2023 American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Prizes and Awards

Regine Kahmann has received many awards for her scientific contributions.

• 1993 Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation
• 1997 Dannie Heineman Prize
• 1998 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1999 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
• 2011 Gregor Mendel Medal of the Leopoldina
• 2011 TUM Distinguished Affiliated Professor (honorary professor) of the Technical University of Munich