Biography

Nils G. Walter is currently the Francis S. Collins Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Biophysics, and Biological Chemistry in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He cofounded and currently codirects the Center for RNA Biomedicine at Michigan, developing a thrust in RNA Therapeutics. He started his career by receiving his “Vordiplom” (B.S.) and “Diploma” (Masters) from the Technical University of Darmstadt and earned his Dr. Ing. while studying molecular in vitro evolution of DNA and RNA with Nobel laureate Manfred Eigen at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen. For his postdoctoral studies, he turned to RNA enzymes under the guidance of John M. Burke at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. His research interests focus on gene regulation by noncoding RNAs through the lens of single molecule techniques. Based on this work, he received the Otto-Hahn medal for Outstanding Researchers of the Max-Planck Society (1995), a Feodor-Lynen Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1995), a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2004), was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2011), received the Faculty Recognition (2013) and Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Awards (2015) from the University of Michigan, and became the first RNA Society Mid-Career Award recipient (2017). He is very grateful to receive long-standing funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Foundations, and has previously founded a biotech startup in the molecular diagnostics space.