Gerd Folkers has been Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at ETH Zurich since 1994 and Associate Professor since 1991. He took the Chair of the Collegium Helveticum on the first of October 2004.
Born in Andernach/Rhein (Germany) in 1953, Folkers studied Pharmacy at the University of Bonn where he earned his doctorate subsequently. With his doctoral advisor he relocated to the University of Tübingen in 1983 and completed his habilitation there in 1989. During a stay with H.-D. Höltje in Berne in 1984/85, he studied new research methods in computer-aided molecular design. He expanded his knowledge during other stays abroad, especially at the Birkbeck College in London and at the Texas A&M University in College Station.
His research focus lies on the molecular interaction between drugs and its binding sites in vivo. Folkers is particularly interested in the strong integration of computer-aided modeling and relevant biochemical/biophysical experiments. From 2004 to 2009 he participated in the fellows’ research projects at Collegium Helveticum: Emotions – their interface to the molecular world and their importance overlaying human rational behavior. Since 2009 he contributes to the current fellows’ research project: Reproducibility, prediction and relevance. At this borderline of basic research between science and humanities his main interest is the relevance of models, collections and their interpretation, especially relating to conceptions of the human race. He extended his studies to Philosophy of Science, Science studies & History of Science.
He serves as a member of the Swiss National Research Council, he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of «Methods in Medicinal Chemistry» (Wiley-VCH), author and editor of scientific books and elected member of the «Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.»
Folkers received international science awards and published some 150 peer-reviewed papers, several books and numerous essays and columns on science topics.