Robert Huber

Facts

Robert Huber

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Robert Huber
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1988

Born: 20 February 1937, Munich, Germany

Affiliation at the time of the award: Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany

Prize motivation: “for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre”

Prize share: 1/3

Work

One of the most fundamental processes of life is photosynthesis, which uses energy from sunlight to make carbohydrates out of water and carbon dioxide. Hartmut Michel studied a bacterium that performs photosynthesis like green plants. The energy conversion takes place through the transportation of electrons via a number of proteins that are attached to special membranes in the cell. In 1982 Michel succeeded in crystallizing these types of proteins. The follow year Michel, Robert Huber, and Johann Deisenhofer determined the structure for the photosynthetic reaction center.

To cite this section
MLA style: Robert Huber – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Tue. 6 Dec 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1988/huber/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Streams during Nobel Week

Coming up

Watch the 2022 Nobel Prize lectures, the Nobel Prize Concert, Nobel Week Dialogue, the prize award ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm and Nobel Peace Prize Forum here at nobelprize.org.
Watch lectures and award ceremonies

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.