GERMANY, Berlin: Biochemist Marina Rodnina receives the Leibniz Prize 2015

Marina Rodnina, Director at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, was distinguished by the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2016 as one of ten awardees at the festive ceremony in Berlin on March 1, 2016. This most important German science award is endowed with 2.5 million Euros. The German Research Foundation (DFG) honours Prof. Rodnina for her pioneering contribution to the understanding of the functioning of ribosomes. 

Marina Rodnina was born in Kyiv, where she studied biology at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She then obtained her doctorate in molecular biology and genetics at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv. Marina Rodnina moved to the University of Witten-Herdecke in Germany in 1990 supported by a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. It was there that she completed her habilitation and was appointed Professor of Physical Biochemistry. Since 2008 she has been director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.

There is a report from the event in Ukrainian and Russian, and an interview with Prof. Rodnina.