Rudolf Weber (1922-2015): a driving force in the transition of developmental biology into a molecular and cellular science.

Abstract

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Heinrich Weber passed away on December 23, 2015, at the high age of 93 years. Succeeding Fritz Baltzer and Fritz Erich Lehmann, he became the third in a line of outstanding developmental biologists at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Throughout his career, he helped shape modern developmental biology by introducing and promoting biochemical and molecular techniques. RudolfWeber was born in Basel, Switzerland, on September 27, 1922. He studied biology in Basel and obtained his PhD in 1949 under the supervision of Adolf Portmann. His thesis (Weber 1949) had a developmental topic (Transitory closures of distant sensory organs during the embryonic period in amniotes; translated from German), yet its character was descriptive and comparative, quite in line with Portmann’s tradition of comparative morphology and evolutionary biology. Weber later admitted that he was never quite happy with his thesis, as his main interest had always been to understand the mechanisms that drive development. He was convinced that this could not be achieved solely bymorphological descriptions and comparisons, but that experiments and in particular chemical and biochemical methods had to be used as well. After his graduation, Weber worked and acquired experiences in different fields, countries, and institutions, in particular at the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the Division de Malarialogia in Maracay (Venezuela), the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel, and the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen (Denmark). A turning point in his career was 1954, when he accepted an assistant position offered by Fritz Erich Lehmann at the Zoological Institute of the University of Bern. This institution was to remain his academic home until his retirement in 1988. In 1954, Lehmann had just succeeded Fritz Baltzer as institute director, and both of them were world-renowned specialists of developmental physiology (Entwicklungsphysiologie), the term used for the research field of developmental biology at the time. A native of Bern, Baltzer had studied with Theodor Boveri in Wurzburg (Germany) and with Hans Spemann in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). These experiences had influenced him, once he was appointed professor in Bern, to study the roles of chromosomal and cytoplasmic determinants in various systems, including sea urchins (Baltzer 1910), the worm Bonellia (Baltzer 1928), and amphibians (newts) (Baltzer 1922; Baltzer 1952). His work was driven by the urge to integrate information from * Daniel Schumperli daniel.schuemperli@izb.unibe.ch