Martha L. Ludwig
| Martha Louis Ludwig | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 August 1931 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Died | 27 November 2006 |
| Fields |
Biochemistry X-ray Crystallography |
| Institutions | University of Michigan |
| Alma mater | Cornell University (BA) (1952) University of California Berkeley (M.A.) (1955) Cornell University Medical College (Ph.D.) (1956) |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald B Melville |
| Other academic advisors | William Lipscomb |
| Notable students | Catherine L. Drennan Robert T. Clubb Mark T. Hilgers Robert Pejchal |
Martha Ludwig (August 16, 1931 – November 27, 2006) was an American macromolecular crystallographer. She was the J. Lawrence Oncley Distinguished University Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan.
Ludwig was born on August 16, 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father was Leon Ludwig, a physicist, and her mother was Agnes Sutermeister Ludwig, a worker in the social services. Soon after her birth, her father accepted a job as the director of the Westinghouse facility, resulting in the family move to Buffalo, NY. As a child in school, Martha found a passion for mathematical puzzles and hoped to become a scientist in the future.
During her post-doc at Harvard Medical School, Martha found her husband of 44 years, Fredric Hoch, M.D. doing research on carboxypeptidase with Bert Vallee. Together, they enjoyed many outdoor activities such as skiing, hiking and bird-watching as well as cooking.Known for her love of crystallography and rigorous teaching style, Martha was feared by graduate students. As Cinda-Sue Davis, the current director of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) at the University of Michigan, remarked, “We knew that if Martha was on our preliminary exam committee, she would ask us a question about crystallography.” She taught Biological Chemistry 807, a class modeled after Howard Schachman’s physical biochemistry course. Students said that it was one of the most challenging courses they took in graduate school. While her problem sets were among the most challenging, students said that she pushed them and taught them how to think.
Ludwig died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 27, 2006 from colon cancer.
Martha attended Cornell University and received a B.A. in Chemistry in 1952. She received her Master’s degree in Biochemistry in 1955 from the University of California, followed by a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Cornell Medical College in 1956. While at Cornell, Martha conducted her Ph.D research in Biochemistry under Nobel Laureate Vincent du Vigneaud and studied the biosynthesis of ergothionine in D.B. Melville’s laboratory.
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