Erwin Bünning
| Erwin Bünning | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 23, 1906 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | October 4, 1990 (aged 84) Tübingen, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for |
Model of plant photoperiodism
|
| Spouse(s) | Eleanore Bünning |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Influences | Wilhelm Pfeffer |
| Influenced | Colin Pittendrigh |
Erwin Bünning (23 January 1906 – 4 October 1990) was a German biologist. His most famous contributions were to the field of chronobiology, where he proposed a model for the endogenous circadian rhythms governing plant photoperiodism. From these contributions, Bünning is considered a co-founder of chronobiology along with Jürgen Aschoff and Colin Pittendrigh.
Bünning was born on 23 January 1906 in Hamburg, Germany to Heinrich Bünning and Hermine Bünning (born Winkler). A teacher of German, English, mathematics, and biology, Bünning's father was the primary academic influence on Erwin's early life, passing on to Erwin a passion for botany. Bünning received his primary education in Hamburg from 1912-1925. Bünning then attended the University of Göttingen and the University of Berlin from October 1925-July 1928, where he studied biology, chemistry, physics, and philosophy. Bünning earned his Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Berlin in May 1929. During this time, Bünning married his wife Eleanore; the two would later have three children.
In 1930, Bünning took an assistantship under Otto Renner at the University of Jena, then one of Germany's largest botanical institutes. During the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the early 1930s, Renner stood in open opposition to the Nazis, publicly defending Jewish scientists. Similarly, Bünning was considered a communist sympathizer, a stance likely influenced by Bünning's father, a Social Democrat opposed to the Nazis. Bünning's political beliefs created tension between him and some of his students. In response to this tension, Bünning left Jena for a lectureship at the East Prussian University of Königsberg. In 1936, Bünning published his model for plant photoperiodism, wherein he proposed that endogenous (internal) circadian rhythms enable plants to measure day length. Bünning's model of photoperiodism would go largely unnoticed by the scientific community until 1960 when he chaired the 1960 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Biological Clocks. There, Colin Pittendrigh drew attention to Bünning's work and named his 1936 model on plant photoperiodism the Bünning hypothesis.
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