A chemist by training, Gerhard Gottschalk received his PhD in microbiology in 1963 from the University of Gottingen, Germany, before becoming a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1970 he was made a full professor for microbiology in Gottingen, where he also served as president between 1975 and 1976. He was a visiting professor in UC Davis in 1973 and UC Berkeley in 1979, and head of the Laboratory for Genome Analysis
at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics in Gottingen from 1999 to 2007. He has received numerous awards, including the Philip Morris Prize for cutting-edge technology, the Winogradsky Medal, the Emil von Behring Prize and the first class German National Medal of Honor. Professor Gottschalk is a member of the Gottingen Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, an honorary member of the
Israeli Society of Microbiology, and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He was president of All European Academies (ALLEA) from 1998 to 2000 and president of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities from 2003 to 2007.