Profile of Joachim Messing

Abstract

Joachim Messing’s father did not initially approve of his son’s decision to become a scientist. “He was a mason,” Messing explains, “and was hoping that I would just take over his business.” His mother, however, was more supportive, “because she didn’t like the rough climate on the construction sites.” Fortunately for science, his mother prevailed. Messing, the director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and the Waksman chair of Molecular Genetics at Rutgers University, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015. The DNA sequencing technique he developed made possible the subsequent sequencing of whole genomes, including the human genome. Joachim Messing. Image courtesy of Michael Seul (photographer). Joachim Messing, known as “Jo” (pronounced yoh ), grew up in the town of Duisburg, Germany, in the aftermath of World War II. The first person in his family to go to college, he decided to study pharmacy as an undergraduate. At that time, a degree in biochemistry was not an option for undergraduates. Pharmacy appealed to Messing, in part, because the curriculum covered a broad range of subjects, including organic and inorganic chemistry, botany, and even physics. “You had to learn how to look under the microscope and draw cells,” Messing recalls, “you had to learn about the different pathways in plants that make important substances that could be used for therapy…you had everything.” Studying pharmacy would also allow him to earn money to pay for his education by working as a pharmacist. For the first two years of the pharmacy curriculum, Messing had to work as a pharmacist’s apprentice. The pharmacy where he did his apprenticeship was across from the German Opera on the Rhine in Duisburg. In the evenings, after working at the pharmacy, he would work as an extra with the opera company. The high point of …