Georges Kohler died suddenly on March 1,1995 at the age of 48. His name will remain associated with the co-invention of one of the most important techniques of biotechnology for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1984. Georges was born in 1946 in Munich, studied biology at the University of Freiburg, did his PhD work at the newly founded Basel Institute for Immunology and then joined Cksar Milstein's laboratory in Cambridge where, as a young postdoctoral student, he succeeded in producing the first monoclonal antibodies. After leaving Cambridge, Georges returned to the Basel Institute for Immunology where he worked from 1976 to 1984. He moved to the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in 1984 where he focused on the molecular genetics of B cells.
Georges had been a member of our editorial board since 1984 and was also involved with the journal in a more practical way as one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute that houses the EJI's editorial office.
Neither the success of his discovery -by whose commercial potential he was not sidetracked -nor the Nobel prize and other awards changed Georges' personality. His interest remained research in basic immunology and he himself remained modest, accessible and free. We will miss him, his style, his gentleness, and will remember him not only as a scientist but also as someone who knew how to set priorities in life outside the scope of science.