Thomas C. Südhof

A professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, Thomas C. Südhof is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. In 2013, he and two colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on vesicle (a subunit of a cell) trafficking. Südhof earned his MD in 1982 at the University of Gettingen in Germany after studying at RWTH Aachen University and Harvard University. The following year, he moved to the United States, where he conducted postdoctoral studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center and contributed to a Nobel Prize-winning study. Updated July 2015