Günter Blobel at the Frauenkirche building site in Dresden. He donated his Nobel Prize money to the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche, to the building of a new synagogue, and to the restoration of Dresden. (May 21, 2000).

Prof. Günter Blobel was interviewed by Georgia Patikoglou.

Natural Selections (NS): As a child, what did science represent to you?

Günter Blobel (GB): I was always passionately curious, even as a child, but I did not know much about science then. In fact, in high school I was only marginally interested in science, perhaps because the teachers failed to make the subject fascinating.

NS: Have you always known that you wanted to be a scientist?

GB: I ventured into science only after I completed medical school and my hospital internship in medicine, and more as a default pathway. Somehow, I was frustrated by the practice of medicine at that time. For many diseases, symptoms—but not the causes of the disease—were treated. I thought that it should be interesting to find out more about the causes of diseases. It was then that I decided to come to the US and to go to graduate school to get a firmer basis in science.

NS: Can you talk about your experience in graduate school?

GB: In graduate school there was a lot of emphasis on courses and less on enhancing one’s analytical and integrative abilities. I was better trained to do science, but I was still not overly excited about it. It is only during my postdoctoral training with George Palade here at Rockefeller University that I really caught fire.

NS: To what do you attribute your success in science?

GB: To passion, discipline, and retaining the curiosity and optimism of a child.

NS: What has been the most memorable moment of your scientific career?

GB: In 1975, when I succeeded in reconstituting the first steps of the secretory pathway in the test tube.

NS: What is the best part about being a scientist?

GB: The freedom to think and to plot, and the tensions about the results of these thoughts and plots.

NS: What is the worst part about being a scientist?

GB: Grant writing.

NS: Outside of your career, what are your passions, interests, hobbies?

GB: Music, and the visual arts, particularly architecture, and the endless stream of subtle beauties one can discover every waking minute.

NS: If you could pick one thing to change in the world, what would it be?

GB: Opportunities for all people to realize their full potential.

NS: Is there one piece of advice you wish you had been told when starting your career that you could share?

GB: No. Somebody gives advice based on her/his experiences in life and because these are not transferable, advice is essentially useless.