Thisbe Lindhorst
German professor and biochemist (born 1962)
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Early life and education
Lindhorst was born on 19 November 1962 in Munich. She studied chemistry at LMU Munich from 1981 to 1984 and chemistry with biochemistry at the University of Münster from 1985 to 1987. She achieved a PhD at the University of Hamburg in 1991, with a thesis on the inhibitors of fucose metabolism.
She undertook her postdoctorate at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from 1992, focusing on carbohydrates and dendrimers, before returning to Hamburg to earn her habilitation in 1998.
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Career
In 2000, Lindhorst was appointed Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at Kiel University; she was the first woman to hold the post since the Second World War.
In 2015, Lindhorst was elected president of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) for the 2016–2017 term. She was second women to hold the position in the society's 150-year history.
As part of the society's anniversary commemorations in 2017, Lindhorst co-edited Unendliche Weiten: Kreuz und quer durchs Chemie-Universum, a book covering the implications of modern chemistry to everyday life, with Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger. In August 2017, she wrote the editorial for Angewandte Chemie celebrating the GDCh's anniversary, noting chemistry's moral and ethical duties, and pushing for "a culture that has the well-being of the entire population and the planet in mind".
Research
Lindhorst is an expert in carbohydrate chemistry and has written over 150 research papers. She has pioneered studies of multivalency in the glycosciences and the importance of the orientation of molecules on cell surfaces for biological recognition. Her findings around molecule orientation have potential for anti-adhesion therapies and in antimicrobial drug development.
Honours and awards
In 1998, Lindhorst was awarded the chemistry prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Karl Ziegler funding award. She also won the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize in 2000.
In 2017, Lindhorst was one of 12 women given the IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering award. She was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2017.
Personal life
Lindhorst has two children, born in 1991 and 1995.