Huber, Robert (1937-…), a German biochemist, headed a team that analyzed the structure of an important giant molecule. The molecule plays a role in photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert the energy of sunlight into their own tissues. For this work, Huber and his colleagues Johann Deisenhofer and Hartmut Michel shared the 1988 Nobel Prize for chemistry.
Huber was born in Munich, Germany. He studied chemistry at what later became the Technical University of Munich and gained a diploma (roughly equivalent to a master’s degree) in 1960. He carried out research both there and at Munich University, investigating the molecule of ecdysone, a hormone that controls the metamorphosis of insects, and gained his Ph.D. in 1963. He then worked in X-ray crystallography, the determination of the arrangement of atoms in crystalline substances by the use of X rays.
In 1972, Huber became director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry at Martinsried, near Munich. He continued his work with the Munich Technical University, where he became a professor in 1976. At the Max Planck Institute he built up a laboratory with unequaled expertise in the X-ray crystallography of an enormous range of large molecules.
In 1982, Huber provided assistance to Hartmut Michel, who worked in another group at Martinsried. Michel had achieved the crystallization of a complex molecule from a bacterium that was known to be important in photosynthesis. Huber assigned one of his team, Johann Deisenhofer, to help in the X-ray crystallography of the molecule. The task was completed in 1985. Although the molecule came from a bacterium, unraveling its structure throws light on the closely related process of photosynthesis in plants.
