Hendrik Dietz

Hendrik Dietz (born December 18, 1977, in Dresden Germany) is a German physicist known for his contributions in the field of DNA origami. He is a full-professor for biophysics at the Technical University of Munich.

Life
Dietz studied physics in Paderborn University, the University of Zaragoza, and at the LMU Munich. He completed his studies with a diploma in 2004. Subsequently, he became a research associate at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). In 2007, he earned his Dr. rer. nat. with research on the mechanical anisotropy of proteins in single-molecule experiments. After that, he spent two years as a postdoc at Harvard University. Since the summer of 2009, he has been a Professor of Biophysics at the TU München.

Research
Dietz’s main research focus is on DNA nanotechnology. He uses DNA origami to design molecular machines that can execute user-defined tasks. Among these devices are force-sensing nano-structures, gigadalton-sized DNA assemblies, dynamically switching devices, molecular motors, and virus traps.

In the long term, Dietz hopes to make a significant contribution to the creation of molecular machines and systems with practical benefits for everyday life. This includes uses in medicine such as vaccines or drug delivery vehicles and synthetic enzymes for biologically inspired chemistry.

Awards

 * 2010, European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant
 * 2015, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
 * 2016, European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant
 * 2021, European Research Council Advanced Grant