[3dem] Andreas Engel

Sat Apr 4 15:32:00 PDT 2026

I join Henning in his deep sadness, remembering Andreas, while also feeling
grateful to have been close to him in his final times and being amazed by
how some people, like Andreas, can stay positive even in the worst
circumstances. Andreas was with us in Madrid last December, and he was a
source of inspiration for the whole team.

Departing from Henning's main exposé, I would like to stress his role as
co.Editor in Chief of JSB. In fact, I can announce that an In Memoriam in
his honor is being prepared right now, and I really want to
publicly recognise people like him, like Ueli Aebi before, who have worked
hard in the past for the Journal of Structural Biology and fully deserve to
be recognised

As a new co.Editor in Chief of the Journal. I think that it all starts with
showing respect and appreciation for those who came before you. So, stay
"tuned" for these "in Memoriam". You will not be disappointed

With best wishes..JM

On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 11:27 PM Henning Stahlberg via 3dem <
3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu> wrote:

>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> With deep sadness I share the news that Andreas Engel passed away last
> Wednesday, at the age of 82, after a courageous fight against an aggressive
> caner. Only half a year ago, he was out hiking in the Italian mountains
> with his wife Barbara, walking 160 km in a single week.
>
> Andreas trained as a physicist in Bern, Switzerland, before heading to
> John Hopkins University in Baltimore for his postdoctoral work. He then led
> a research group at the Biozentrum in Basel, and in 1985 took on the role
> of a group leader in research and development at Ilford Ltd. in Fribourg,
> Switzerland.
>
> In 1987, he joined forces with his colleague Ueli Aebi to establish the
> Maurice E. Müller Institute at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel.
> Together, Ueli and Andreas served as professors for structural biology
> there for almost a quarter century, leaving a lasting mark on the field of
> structural biology as we know it today.
>
> Andreas Engel was a true pioneer. He was among the first to apply atomic
> force microscopy (AFM) with the tip operating under water, and one of the
> earliest researchers to perform 3D reconstructions using scanning
> transmission electron microscopy, achieving remarkable high-resolution maps
> of porin 2D crystals by STEM. He became a leading expert in membrane
> protein 2D crystallization, and his group played a key role in the
> determination of the first aquaporin structure, in collaboration with Peter
> Agre and Yoshinori Fujiyoshi.
>
> As he approached retirement from Basel, Andreas founded the Center for
> Cellular Imaging and NanoAnalytics (C-CINA) of the University of Basel,
> which in 2009 operated among others one of the very early Titan Krios
> instruments. From 2008 also held a professorship at Case Western Reserve
> University, Cleveland, followed by a position at TU Delft in the
> Netherlands in 2013. In 2020, he was among the founding members of
> CryoWrite, a company in Basel that he led as CEO until recently.
>
> His contributions to science, to the tools of structural biology, and to
> our understanding of aquaporins, ion channels, and secretion systems are
> immense. In more than 400 publications, he shared deep expertise, bold and
> visionary thinking, and an exceptional attention to detail.
>
> Yet with all his fascination for science, people were always more
> important to him than career or results. He was a kind group leader. He was
> motivating, a shining role model, yet gentle towards colleagues and the
> members of his lab. We postdocs were offered last authorship positions on
> publications when he found that we had made significant contributions to
> the direction of the project.
>
> Andreas lived a rich and full life outside of the lab. He had a wonderful
> family, a wide circle of dear friends, played banjo in a jazz band, and was
> an outstanding skier and spirited hiker. He welcomed colleagues and friends
> with warmth and understanding. A large number of his former students still
> love science today and have been able to build fulfilling careers, in no
> small part thanks to Andreas and his generous support offered to us.
>
> Andreas will be greatly missed.
>
> [image: Andreas_Engel.jpg]
>
>
>
> *Henning Stahlberg*
> Laboratory of Biological Electron Microscopy
> Institute of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, EPFL, and
> Dep. of Fund. Microbiology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, UNIL,
> Cubotron, BSP421, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
> lbem.ch
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>   +41 21 693 45 07
>
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>

-- 
Prof. Jose-Maria Carazo
Biocomputing Unit, Head.
Instruct Spanish Center, Director
Spanish National Center for Biotechnology, CNB-CSIC
Darwin 3, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Cell: +34639197980

Note: You may receive emails from me at strange times. This may occur
because I am often in different time zones. However, I do not expect a
reply from you outside your normal business hours
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