Rolf Knippers (18th April 1936, Mülheim an der Ruhr – 29 July 2017, Konstanz) was a German molecular biologist and geneticist. He served as Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Konstanz from 1973 until his retirement in 2004.
After studying human medicine in Marburg, Freiburg, and Munich, Knippers received his doctorate in 1962 from the University of Marburg. His scientific career included research appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg and at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he carried out seminal work on DNA replication. He completed his habilitation in Heidelberg in 1969 and became a group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen in 1970.
His research focused on DNA replication and its initiation, as well as on the characterization of proteins involved in these processes, particularly chromatin-associated factors. Rolf Knippers was the author of a widely used German-language textbook on molecular genetics, first published in 1971 and reaching its tenth edition in 2015.
In recognition of his scientific achievements, he was awarded the Gregor Mendel Medal in 2005. From 1997 to 2001 he served as President of the German Society for Genetics and was named an Honorary Member in 2008. He played a key role in bringing the International Congress of Genetics to Germany in 2008 and was a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
Obituary for Rolf Knippers — see PDF
