Rudi Lemberg

Rudi Lemberg
FRS
Born
Max Rudolf Lemberg

(1896-10-09)9 October 1896
Died10 April 1975(1975-04-10) (aged 78)
Known forResearch on porphyrins; Hematin Compounds and Bile Pigments (with J. W. Legge)
SpouseHanna Lemberg
ChildrenNone
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Heidelberg, Kolling Institute of Medical Research

Max Rudolf "Rudi" Lemberg FRS FAA (19 October 1896 – 10 April 1975) was a German-Australian biochemist who specialised in porphyrin structure and function. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA).[1][2][3]

Lemberg served in the German Army during WWI and earned an Iron Cross. He married textile artist Hanna in Breslau in 1924. The couple were involved in social work programs to improve the slums and in youth groups. The Lembergs moved to Heidelberg after their marriage, where Rudi worked at the university until 1933.[4]

Rudi, whose family background was Jewish, fled Nazi Germany with Hanna in 1933. He was recommended for a position at the University of Cambridge, and the Lembergs moved from there to Sydney in 1935.[4] He applied for naturalization as an Australian citizen in 1937.[5]

He was a director of the Kolling Institute of Medical Research from 1935 to 1972, establishing a major research focus on porphyrins, structures within molecules which give the red colour to blood and the yellow colour to bile. In 1949, he and collaborator J. W. Legge published Hematin Compounds and Bile Pigments,[6] the "high-water mark in Lemberg's scientific development and thinking".[2]

In 1953, they built a home in North Wahroonga, called The Sanctuary.

The house was designed by fellow German refugee Hugh Buhrich in the Bauhaus style. The Lembergs joined the Quakers in 1956. In 1973 Hanna Lemberg made an embroidered wall-hanging (or tapestry) titled The Sanctuary depicting their home on a large native bush land plot.[7] The Lembergs gave part of their property to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) where a meeting house was built, meetings held, and Rudi taught young friends about evolution and the spirit. Rudi died in 1975, and Hanna died in 1998. The couple had no children and left their property to the Quakers.[4]

Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship

The Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship offered by the academy is named in his honour.[8]

Awardees:

References

  1. ^ Rimington, C.; Gray, C. H. (1976). "Max Rudolf Lemberg 19 October 1896 -- 10 April 1975". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 22: 256–294. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1976.0011.
  2. ^ a b J. Barrett; R.N. Robertson. "Max Rudolph Lemberg 1896-1975". Biographical memoirs. Australian Academy of Science. Originally published in Records of the Australian Academy of Science, vol.4, no.1, 1978. Also available at AAS
  3. ^ R. Bhathal. "Max Rudolf (Rudi) Lemberg (1896–1975)". Lemberg, Max Rudolf (Rudi) (1896–1975). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help) First published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, (MUP), 2000.
  4. ^ a b c "The Sanctuary: The Gift of Rudi and Hanna Lemberg" (PDF). Quakers Australia. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  5. ^ "Advertising". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. II, no. 62. New South Wales, Australia. 2 June 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 20 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ Lemberg, R.; Lemberg, R.; Legge, J. W. (1949). Hematin compounds and bile pigments; their constitution, metabolism, and function. New York: Interscience Publishers.
  7. ^ Lemberg, Hanna. "The Sanctuary". National Gallery of Australia.
  8. ^ "Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship". science.org.au.


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