Professor Stefan Hohmann passed away on 2 July 2021 at the age of 64. He is most closely missed by his wife Dorothea, their four children and grandchild. Stefan Hohmann was Head of the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering for five years, and he was one of the European pioneers of yeast genetics and molecular biology.
Professor Stefan Hohmann did his PhD study at University of Darmstadt followed by a post doc at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He then continued his European journey to Gothenburg, where he ended up spending the rest of his career. In Gothenburg he had a very strong influence on the yeast and systems biology research community. Shortly after his arrival to Sweden, Stefan was appointed as Forskningsprofessor based on a prestigious grant from Vetenskapsrådet. Shortly after he was appointed as Professor at Gothenburg University, where he played an instrumental role in gathering a number of young yeast researchers and establish a very strong yeast research environment, impressive both by the breadth and the depth of competences.
Even today, more than 25 years after Stefan’s arrival to Gothenburg, we still see a strong and thriving research environment on yeast genetics, molecular biology, systems biology and metabolic engineering, thanks to the seeds of science and leadership that Stefan planted. The research environment he leaves behind at both Gothenburg University and Chalmers is one of his significant legacies.
Stefan’s research was focused on osmotic stress in yeast, which is important for industrial use of yeast in the production of beer, wine, and bioethanol. Many of his scientific discoveries have had a significant impact on the field and have resulted in improved industrial use of yeast. Stefan’s impact on the research community, however, reaches wide outside his scientific contributions. He was an active editor of several journals, and he chaired several large international conferences in Gothenburg, including the 2003 International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, the 2008 International Conference on Systems Biology and the 2010 FEBS conference, all with more than 1000 participants.
Besides serving his community with science, Stefan also gave his time and talent to serving as a leader. He was for several years Deputy Dean for the Natural Science Faculty at GU and in 2015 he was recruited as Head of Department of Biology and Biological Engineering at Chalmers, a position he held until he had to step down due to his illness. During his tenure the department grew, in terms of faculty, international profile, and internal strength. Stefan was a constant visionary, looking ahead on how the department could further strengthen its profile and international standing.
Besides being respected for his science and leadership, Stefan was appreciated for his integrity, humor, love of his family and their animals, love for Africa, good wines and football. In his love for football Stefan showed not only the love of the game but also his caring personality, as coach within Lerum IS and goalkeeper coach within IFK Göteborg’s Football Academy, a “hobby” that he took greatly to his heart.
Stefan was a caring, engaged, dedicated and loving person and we will all miss him tremendously, for his science, his leadership, his friendship, his humanity, and his humor.
Professor Jens Nielsen
Professor Lisbeth Olsson
Professor Fredrik Westerlund
Professor Rikard Landberg
Dr. Thomas Svensson