I have been interested in astronomy, since I was 12 years old.
I attended a boarding school from age 10 to 14.
The school had a sizable collection of minerals that stirred
my interest. Asking a teacher for literature about minerals
he told me that he had nothing suitable for a person of my age,
but that he had some books about stars that might interest me.
I began to read the books he gave to me and became more interested
in astronomy. The r taught me Kepler"s laws of planetary motion.
With his help and a considerable collection of eye glasses and cardboard
cylinders in the teacher's possession, and with his help I built my first
refractor telescope. I became sure that I wanted to become an astronomer
when I were to enter university.
University Studies
At the beginnining of the summer semester 1970 I enrolled
at the Universität Münster. It was the university closest
to my hometown and the only university in Germany where one
could choose astronomy as the major subject. Sometime during
the semester Prof. Straßl, the director of the astronomical
institute, advised me to leave and go elsewhere because the
institute as he said was too small to provide me with a decent
education. He had a point: the instiute consisted of one
professor, his assistant and one student, me.
I set out to look for an alternative, first visiting Bonn where
I rented a room right away, applied for admission to study physics
in Heidelberg and finally visited Göttingen. I got admiitted for
study in Heidelberg, but when walking through the streets of
Göttingen, I knew that this was the town where i wanted to study.
A small town, breathing history on every corner, the place where
Gauss and Hilbert had worked, one of the birthplaces of quantum
mechanics and with an astronomical observatory built during Gauss'
lifetime.
Admission in Göttongen was also restricted and the application
deadline had already passed. I consulted Prof. Kippenhahn who
engaged in theoretical astrophysics and he suggested that I start
by studiyng mathematica first and switch to physics after the
Vordiplom (approx. B.Sc.). So I did. After 3 semesters I obtained
the Vordiplom. Meanwhile I had decided that I was no longer
interested in science and began to study English literature and
history for 3 semesters. Then my love for astronomy returned and
I switched again, to physics. Under the supervision of Willi Deinzer
I investigated the generation of magnetic fields in the cores of
massive stars.
M.Sc. Thesis
In my thesis I studied the mechanism of $\alpha$-effect dynamos driven
by turbulent plasma motion, when currents flow through magnetic
fields. The sun's and the earth's magnetic fields are
generated by such dynamo action. While research thus far had focussed on
$\alpha\omega$-dynamos, where the $\alpha$-effect and differential
rotation work together to produce magnetic fields, my work showed that
the $\alpha$-effect alone was sufficient. Such a dynamo is called an
$\alpha^2$-dynamo.
An unexpected side result with a model consisting of a convecrive core
surrounded by a radiative shell behaves quite different as a function
of $\alpha$-effect strength compared to $\alpha\omega$-dynamos. An
existing field decays extremely slowly, when the effect is weak
and begins to grow when a threshold is crossed.
Thesis Title
$\alpha^2$ Dynamos in den konvektiven Kernen
massereicher Sterne
$\alpha^2$ dynmos in the convective cores of massive stars
Publication
Manfred Schüßler, Arno Pähler
Diffusion of a Strong Internal Magnetic Field
through the Radiative Envelope of a 2.25 $M_{\odot}$ star
Astron. & Astrophys. 68, 57-62 (1978)
The publication was last cited in a research paper in July 2023.
Minerals had lead me to astronomy at the age of 12.
I studied astronomy and was intent on continuing this
path. While pondering my next steps, a part-time job
changed my future forever.
A scientist, Wolfram Saenger, at the Max-Planck-Institut
für experimentelle Medizin in Göttingen, was offering
a programmer part-time position. I interviewed and was
accepted. At the end of the interview he asked me whether
I would be interested to becocme a graduate student in
his research team. Initially I declined but left the final
decision open.
Disaster in Bonn
During a party at the Sternwarte in Göttingen one of my former professors
suggested that I contact Peter Mezger at the Max-Planck-
Institut für Radioastronomie. After having arranged a visit to Bonn
I discussed my options with Mezger. At the end everything
seemed settled: I would join his department as a graduate student and
a professor in Göttingen would act as my official thesis supervisor.
Then came Mezger"s final question: "Und wovon wollen Sie leben?"
- "How do you want to cover your living expenses?".
This one question ended my astronomical career. I pointed out to him
that the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft offered grants for graduate
students. He demured, telling me that he had no money to
support me. It was likely not meant seriously: I was contacted
multiple times thereafter asking when I would move to Bonn.
I never replied but ultimately got tired and sent a reply that
I woudl never come.
I returned to Göttingen the same afternoon, talked to Saenger
and asked whether he still wanted me as a grauate student.
He said yes and from that moment on I became a protein
crystallographer, spending most of my scientific career in
that field.
Professional Activities
I have worked in research institutes, universities
and pharmaceutical companies in Germany, the USA and Japan.
Most of that time was spent in Japan, where I lived and worked
for 16 years.
Research Institutes
MPI für experimentelle Medizin, Göttingen, DE
PERI, Osaka, JP
RIKEN, Harima, JP
Universities
MIT, Cambridge, MA, US
Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, DE
Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, DE
Columbia University, New York, NY, US
Osaka University,s Osaka, JP
Companies
Taisho Seiyaku, Ohmiya, JP
Mitsubishi Kagaku, Yokohama, JP
Syrrx, San Diegp, CA, US
Multi-wavelength Anomalous Diffraction (MAD)
The most important contibution that I made to protein
crystallography was my involvement in the development
of multi-wavelength anomalous difraction. The method was
mostly developed by W. Hendriclson and J. Smith. I made
minor contributions to the theory and was the first person
to successfully apply it, jointly with Hendrickson and
Smith, to determine an unknown structure with this technique.
It is now the standard method in the field, together with
single-wavelength anomalous diffraction.
Publication
W. A. Hendrickson, A. Pähler, J. L. Smith,
Y. Satow, E. A. Merritt, R. P. Phizackerley
Crystal structure of core streptavidin determined from
multiwavelength anomalous diffraction of synchrotron radiarion
PNAS 86, 2180-2184 (1989)
Euler's relation below combines the two transcendental numbers
e and $\pi$ ,
the imaginary unit i, the multiplicative unit 1
as well as the additive unit 0
in a single equation.
Euler's Formula
$$\Large{e^{i\,\pi} + 1 = 0}$$
Negative powers of 2
$$\Large{k\in\mathbb{N}\land k > 0}$$
$$
\Large{
\begin{align}
2^{-(2\, k + 1)} &= 0....125\\
2^{-(2\, k + 2)} &= 0....625
\end{align}}
$$
My earliest exposure to computers was at the age of 16,
when I took a correspondence course "Programming of Hollerith
Machines". They work with punched cards, switchboards and cables
to program them. The next step was learning Algol-60 in my second
semester as a mathematics student.
While I studied mathematics, I took a courseabout numerical
mathematics.The two terms I liked best were ADI for alternating
directions implicit (method) and SOR for successive
overrelaxation. Both are used to solve partial differential
equations.
One rule that we were told to always respect was: If you need
to divide more than once by the same value, calcuate the reciprocal
of that vallue and mutliply by it. That is, because even today,
division is much slower than multiplication.
Programming languages
My first "programming language" was of course switchboards and
cables. After that in 1971 Algol-60 and from 1973 Fortran and
more modern variants of Fortran. Since then I have learned a
substantial number of languages, some of which are listed
below in mostly chronological order. My favorite and almost
exclusively used language is Python. Languages that I
currently actively use are underlined..
Tools like HTML, CSS and Javascript that I use to develop
this website I do not usually employ. HTML is generated via
Pug/Jade and CSS via Stylus. The framework is Flask. The entire code
consists of Python, Pug/Jade, CSS and Javascript. HTMl is created
on the fly from Pug templates with PyPugJS. Bootstrap or Foundation
and jQuery scripts and Bootstrap or Foundation CSS are also used.