In memoriam: Hans Gerd Schiefer (1935–2014)

Professor Hans Gerd Schiefer, known to many of us as a medical microbiologist with a strong interest in infectious diseases, died on October 11, 2014 from complications of a malignant tumor. Born on December 17, 1935 in Wuppertal–Elberfeld, he studied medicine at the universities of Marburg, Munich, and Düsseldorf and interrupted his studies for a 2-year period of work in the biochemistry laboratory of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich under the direction of Carl Martius. After receiving his M.D. degree in 1962, he interned in medicine in Duisburg, Essen, and Cologne and again in biochemistry at the University of Cologne and at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental medicine in Göttingen. In 1971, he became a fellow at the Institute of Medical Microbiology of the University of Giessen, qualified in 1972 as a specialist in Laboratory Medicine, and became Assistant Professor for Medical Microbiology and Urogenital and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in 1974. In 1975, he was named Professor at that institution