Peter B. Becker

Peter B. Becker is a Professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and the Adolf Butenandt Institute, where he serves as Head of the Department of Molecular Biology. He has been an Acting Director of the Adolf Butenandt Institute since 2008 and a co-opted Member of the Faculty of Biology since 2004.

• Born September 12, 1958 in Frankfurt/Main
• German nationality
• Married, 3 children (born 1985, 1987, 1990)
• Diploma in Biology (1984), Ph.D. (1987) at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Habilitation (1996) at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

His research focuses on chromatin structure and function, epigenetic regulation of gene expression, and molecular mechanisms of transcriptional control. He has made significant contributions to understanding how chromatin dynamics influence cellular processes through epigenetic principles. His work intersects molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry, with implications for cancer research and developmental biology.

• 1987: Young Investigators Award, Society for Molecular Biology, Heidelberg
• 1988: Richtzenhain-Prize for Cancer Research, DKFZ, Heidelberg
• 1988: DFG Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 1990: Fogarty Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIH
• 2000: EMBO Member
• 2005: Gottfried-Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
• 2007: Academia Europaea and Leopoldina Member
• 2011: ERC Advanced Investigator Grant

Becker has secured substantial funding through Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants and the ERC Advanced Grant, enabling his work on chromatin regulation. He has also held editorial roles on journals like Nucleic Acids Research, EMBO Journal, and PLOS Biology, and participated in numerous international research networks, including the EU-funded 'The Epigenome' network.