Cell News 2/2016
28
OBITUARY
Prof. Eberhard Schnepf
©Augustinum/Christian Topp
Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Eberhard Schnepf
* 1931 † 2016
DGZ Vice President 1981-1985
Prof. Eberhard Schnepf, the former head of the Division of Cell Biology at the University of Heidelberg,
suddenly died in his home in Heidelberg. He was one of the founding members of our society in 1975.
Prof. Schnepf was a gifted microscopist, who contributed to our present knowledge of plant cell orga-
nelles and ultrastructure, predominantly through his work in the pioneer days of electron microscopy.
He started to apply electron microscopy during his PhD thesis work at the University of Bonn in the
late 1950ies to study “Ektodesmata” (por-like structures that connect the plant vacuole with the en-
vironment) and continued to work on plant ultrastructure during his time as a postdoctoral research
assistant at the University of Marburg. Following his habilitation in 1963, he became professor in
Göttingen for two years, only to move on to an equivalent position at the University of Heidelberg. In
1970, he declined an offer from Kiel to become full professor and decided to stay in Heidelberg, where
he became Ordinarius der Zellenlehre. Despite receiving another offer by the University of Hamburg in
1978, he chose to remain in the prolific setting in Heidelberg until his retirement in 1995. During his
active time, he served the Faculty of Biosciences on several occasions as dean and vice-dean, showing
his commitment to education and science. He continued to publish on algae, using microscopy, both
in hard core science journals and in the popular science „Mikrokosmos“ journal. Prof. Schnepf had the
gift to communicate the structure and beauty of plants not only to his many students but also to the
greater public, and was happy to invest his time to share these gifts. Our society has lost an eminent
plant scientist, a gifted teacher and a valued colleague.
