The Society for Molecular Imprinting
The Society for Molecular Imprinting
We regret to report the death, on the 22nd January 2024 of Professor Klaus Mosbach, Emeritus Professor, Pure and Applied Chemistry, Lund University. Klaus was regarded as one of the founders of modern molecular imprinting, in particular, for the development of non-covalent molecular imprinting using functional monomers such as methacrylic acid, vinylpyridine and acylamide. Klaus was mentor to many students and post-docs who have forged their own careers building on the legacy of this remarkable scientist.
Klaus began his university studies at Lund University in 1953, going on to gain his master's degree and PhD. After post-doc work in Rutgers University in the States, he returned to Lund and rose to the level of Professor in 1970 where he founded and led the Center for Molecular Imprinting within the Dept. of Pure and Applied Chemistry. He was also was co-founder of the Institute of biotechnology at ETH Zurich Switzerland in 1982. He is the auther of over 530 scientific publications and patents.1
Chris Lowe wrote:
It was devastating to hear the very sad news that Klaus had passed away. My wife and I have known Klaus for over half a century and our thoughts are with May,
his three daughters and their families in this most difficult of times. Klaus was a mentor, advisor and friend over all of those years and provided the inspiration for me to persevere on my entrepreneurial journey into
biotechnology. I recall his 60th Birthday celebrations and, more recently, the opportunity we had to celebrate his life and innumerable achievements at the 90th birthday party in Lund. His approach to life, imagination,
wonderful humour and love of science endeared him to everyone and will be sorely missed by us all. In my experience, Klaus was a unique scientist and human being. My only dismay is that he never achieved one of his
key aspirations of being awarded a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work. Nevertheless, I hope that some permanent memorial could be arranged to celebrate Klaus’s life and work.
Warmest regards,
Chris & Pat Lowe
Ken Shea wrote:
I first saw Klaus at a Gordon Research Conference on Immobilized Enzymes, Complexes, and Cells in 1978 in New Hampshire. I was a young Assistant Professor at that time. Klaus gave a brilliant
talk on immobilized enzymes, and I gave my very first public talk on molecular imprinting. I’m not sure if we spoke at that meeting, but clearly, he had his own ideas about imprinting as his research focus shifted to
noncovalent molecular imprinting. Our next connection came ten years later when I was asked to serve as a dissertation opponent for one of Klaus’s graduate students, Börje Sellergren. Börje of course did exceptionally well
and went on to post doc in my group, and that also was the start of a long and treasured relationship with Klaus. The connections involved many trips to Lund, for meetings, conferences, and celebrations as well as gatherings
in the states and abroad. Klaus’s impact on the field cannot be overestimated. His research team produced many of the foundational developments in molecular imprinting. He was a larger than life individual with a big, engaging
personality and quick with a laugh. He was a vibrant force and a tireless promoter of molecular imprinting. He trained generations of molecular imprinters, and his students are now producing scientific grandchildren that keep
the molecular imprinting field alive and well. So many of the important players in molecular imprinting today can trace their roots back to Klaus. Klaus had an engaging personality and could be very persuasive. I saw this in
action one evening in Lund after a long night of partying. He was driving me back to my hotel and we were pulled over by the police. This could have been a problem, but Klaus charmed the officer informing him that he (Klaus)
was a professor at Lund and was escorting a “distinguished” visitor from the United States back to his hotel. We got away with it. Klaus was one of a kind, I will dearly miss him and molecular imprinting has lost its most
influential cheerleader.
Ken Shea
Oliver Brüggemann wrote:
I first met Klaus Mosbach when I traveled from Lausanne to Lund for an interview in early 1998 after I had sent him an application in response to a job advertisement in a scientific journal for a postdoc position. On my first day in Sweden, I took a bus from Malmö airport to Lund and asked the bus driver for directions to the Chemical Center at Lund University. Officially, the final stop was supposed to be at Lund Central Station, but surprisingly, the friendly bus driver drove me as the last passenger straight to the Chemical Center, where the first contact with Klaus' extremely supportive secretary Ingrid took place. Klaus then showed me around and took me to his house that first day and treated me like an old friend. There was immediately a very special atmosphere with Klaus, his team and Sweden in general. A few months later, I moved to Sweden to do research in his group and stayed there for more than a year.
Since those days, I have considered Klaus a mentor and friend. He always inspired us and helped us to think differently. Klaus was on the one hand very persistent when it came to projects and their progress, on the other hand he was an exceptionally kind, empathetic and humorous man. Moreover, it was really great fun to work with him. And I always enjoyed the phone calls I received from him from time to time in the years after I left Lund when we discussed new ideas and science in general. In my scientific career, I have never before or since experienced such a profound, creative and inspiring researcher and teacher.
Klaus, I miss you and I will never forget the positive influence you always had.
Prof. Dr. Oliver Brüggemann
Hossam Sayour wrote:
It was really sad for me to miss the name of Professor Klaus Mosbach 😪 from the list of organising committee of MIP 2024. Since the announcement of MIP 2024 I was looking for Klaus in the list as my student" Mohamed Ahmed" who will join this year conference to send my best regards to him and hear the golden advices from the father of molecular imprinting. I was upset from that day as I did not find the father of imprinting name in the list and I was talking to my self that the 92 -years old scientist may be unable to join because of his age and I was praying for him wishing him the good health. In his 90th. Birthday I wrote a small post on his grand successes through his life and the milestone he faced during the longest way ever to fight for proof his novel ideas in non covalent imprinting and many more in my group page on Facebook named " plastic antibody" here is the link.
I met Prof. Mosbach physically in Paris August, 2012 during my attendance of MIP 2012 where I was determined to talk with this mighty scientist " the father of Molecular imprinting " and having
a photo with him for the record of my prestigious photo album. I asked him after the talk of Prof. Gunter Wolf entitled " 40 years of Molecular imprinting " (why the commercialization of molecularly imprinted based
applications is yet very slow in the market?) he answered " I did many research in my laboratory, now it is your turn" where he was looking for me and for all attendees of MIPPers at that date. In 2015, I organised our first
workshop hosted by University of Ain Shams in Egypt where Prof. Ken Shea was one of our honours board physically, other professors remotely including; Sellergren, Piletsky, Ian Nicholls and Karim as well where I was addressing
the merits of Egyptian chapter of molecular imprinting (you find the link attached here ). I was looking at that time
to host our late father of Molecular imprinting physically but unfortunately he was not available at our workshop at that time. I mentioned him as the father of imprinting and the founder of right way forward non-covalent
imprinting, his milestone with the IUPAC 1993 to pave the term " plastic antibody " defining its scientific term significance. Finally, our Egyptian chapter slogan of MI that I launched since 2015 " Long ago Pharaohs believed
in Eternal life! for future prospects; could molecular imprinting be the magical key towards better life? The world now is living the plastic age . The answer is definitely yes" . As Prof. MOSBACH did many research in plastic
antibody to make the late Professor Linus Pauing dreams come true after his uncoverin the secrets of antigen-antibody paradigm " lock and key aspirations " hoping for the future of synthetic receptor. In my opinion , Klaus was
deserving 👏 Noble Prize for his scientific achievements during his life. I played to the God the Almighty to rest his soul in peace with the righteous for his valuable contribution to science that benefits 🙏 the human kind.
Finest regards
Hossam Sayour, Ph.D
If you wish to add your own eulogy, please contact me at mike@mipdatabase.com
