Michael G. Rossmann (1930-2019)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of one of the giants in the field of structural biology, Michael G. Rossmann. Professor Rossmann (Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA) died on 14 May 2019 at the age of 88.

From mapping the structure of the common cold virus using X-ray crystallography in 1985 to creating the most accurate picture to date of the Zika virus using cryoelectron microscopy in 2018, he and his team have paved the way for vaccine design.

In 1994, Professor Rossmann received the Gregori Aminoff Prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for his fundamental methodological work on the utilization of non-crystallographic symmetry, with its especially important applications within protein and virus crystallography. Shortly afterwards, in 1996, he was awarded the fourth Ewald Prize for his work on molecular replacement and the use of non-crystallographic symmetry in the determination of macromolecular structure and for his research on the structure of viruses, which is foremost among the triumphs of crystallography. The latter Prize was presented during the Opening Ceremony of the 17th IUCr Congress (Seattle, WA, USA), and it was at this Congress that the IUCr commissioned him and Eddy Arnold to produce a new volume for the International Tables series dedicated to the growing field of macromolecular crystallography. The resultant Volume F, which appeared in 2001, was enthusiastically welcomed by the structural biology community. Professor Rossmann had other close ties to the IUCr. At the 12th General Assembly (Ottawa, Canada) in 1981, he was elected Chair of the new Commission on Biological-Macromolecule Crystallography (now Commission on Biological Macromolecules), and has also served on the Commission on Crystallographic Nomenclature. In addition, he has published widely in IUCr journals.

A full obituary will be published in due course.