Professor Ulfert Hornemann retired on January 3, 2006, completing a 25-year career as a University of Wisconsin faculty member. A native of Germany, he received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Technical University, Hanover, Germany, in 1961, and his doctorate in organic chemistry-biochemistry from Technical University, Munich, in 1966. He held a postdoctoral position at Purdue University’s School of Pharmacy before appointment to its faculty in 1969, where he served until 1981. Dr. Hornemann spent a sabbatical year in the Department of Genetics at the John Innes Institute, Norwich, England, in 1976-77, supported by an American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education Fellowship.
At Wisconsin, Hornemann contributed in both Pharmaceutical Sciences and in the Department of Bacteriology as a Ph.D. trainer and published research in the areas of alkaloid and antibiotic biosynthesis, mode of action of antibiotics, enzymology, and Streptomyces DNA amplification. A patent in the area of Streptomyces DNA amplification was earned in 1983. Dr. Hornemann enjoyed training numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in natural products biochemistry, genetics of Streptomyces, and RNA chemistry/biochemistry; approximately ten students and associates who participated in this research now hold faculty positions at U.S. and Japanese universities. In 1990-91, he was a visiting scientist at Institut Pasteur, Paris, where he focused on studying protein expression patterns in Streptomyces. Another career highlight was serving as an invited speaker at the 9th International Symposium on the Biology of Actinomycetes held in Moscow in 1994.
Hornemann’s contributions in the professional pharmacy program included the teaching of chemotherapeutics, pharmaceutical biochemistry, pharmaceutical biotechnology and pharmacogenomics. He served on numerous committees in the School of Pharmacy and for the university, including membership on the Faculty Advisory Committee of the UW Biotechnology Center (1984-92).
After a lifetime of service to the pharmaceutical sciences, Dr. Hornemann plans to remain active in the scientific arena with a continued focus on prebiotic evolution and current protein biosynthesis, while also kindling his interest in neuroscience that began several years ago.