Karl Stetter

Karl Otto Stetter (born July 16, 1941) is a German microbiologist and authority on astrobiology. He is an expert on microbial life at high temperatures.

Stetter was born in Munich and studied biology at the Technische Universität Munich. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on lactobacilli. From 1980 to 2002 he was professor at, and head of, the department of microbiology and of the Archaea center of the University of Regensburg.

The majority of Professor Stetter's research has focused on sampling, isolating and characterizing archaeal organisms which comprise the third domain of life, particularly undiscovered extremely heat-loving (hyperthermophilic) bacteria and Archaea, also called extremophiles, growing optimally between 80 and 113 °C.

Nanoarchaeum equitans, an archaeal microorganism containing the world's smallest known genome, was discovered by Stetter in 2002 in a hydrothermal vent off the coast of Iceland. This archaebacterium was described in the scientific journal Nature in May 2002.

Among the other extremophiles discovered by Dr Stetter has been Pyrococcus furiosus, which was found on the Italian island of Vulcano in 1981. This extremophile was the source of Pfu DNA polymerase. Stetter also discovered Aquifex aeolicus and Aquifex pyrophilus.

In 2003, Stetter was honored with the Leeuwenhoek Medal by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, an award given every 10 years to the scientist who has made the most outstanding contributions to the advancement of microbiology.

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