Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1991
Field of Research: Physiology
Date: 14 Nov 1991
Place of Ceremony: Chancellor´s Building
Host Institution: Australian National University
Host Country: Canberra, Australia
Canberra, Australia. November 1991. The World Cultural Council presented the 1991 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to Prof. Albrecht Fleckenstein, Professor of Physiology and Head of the Physiologic Institute of the University of Freiburg, Germany. The Official Awarding Ceremony took place at the Australian National University which acted as host for 1991.
Prof. Fleckenstein’s seminal work in the field of cardiovascular physiology, specifically his pioneering investigations of transmembrane calcium channels in heart and vascular smooth muscle fibres, led him to discover the new pharmacological family of “calcium antagonists”. This new class of antihypertensives has become an indispensable component of the therapy of coronary heart disease and high arterial blood pressure. By initiating research of this new pharmacodynamic principIe starting in 1964 and realizing the practical significance of calcium antagonism during the following stages of his investigations, Prof. Fleckenstein has provided reliable research tools that have now found worldwide acceptance.
Prof. Fleckenstein was born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria in 1917. He received the degree of M.D. in 1942 from the University of Würzburg. Following positions held at the University of Heidelberg, Prof. Fleckenstein was appointed Professor of Physiology at the University of Freiburg in 1956.
He has been awarded four honorary degrees and many distinctions for scientific and civic merits, among them the award “For Outstanding Cardiological Research” of the European Section of the International Society for Heart Research and the Great Cross of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Prof. Fleckenstein has authored or co-authored more than 290 scientific publications.
