Speakers

Peer directs the Heidelberg site of EMBL (European Molecular Biology laboratory) and is senior group leader in the areas of computational biology and microbiomics. In addition, he is honorary professor at the universities of Heidelberg and Würzburg as well as the Fudan university of Shanghai.

Peer received his PhD in Biochemistry (1990) and his Habilitation in Theoretical Biophysics (1995). His research group works in various areas of computational and systems biology, currently with a focus on microbiomes. He has published more than 650 research articles, among them more than 80 in Nature, Science or Cell, and is among the most cited researchers in life sciences (>300.000 citations, H-factor of 228 mid 2022). He is or has been on the editorial board of various journals, including Science and Cell, and functions as founding editor of the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

Peer co-founded five successful biotech companies, two of which went public. More than 60 of his former associates now hold professorships or other group leader positions in prominent institutions all over the world. He received a number of awards, among them the "Nature award for creative mentoring" for his achievements in nurturing and stimulating young scientists, the prestigious "Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft award" for the advancement of science using computational methods and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Novozymes prize for outstanding contributions to Biotechnology.  He further obtained two competitive ERC advanced investigator grants and is elected member of the German national academy of sciences (Leopoldina), the European molecular biology organization (EMBO) and the Academia Europaea.