Welcome to the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Our main scientific interests are endosymbiosis, early evolution, the origin of life, cell evolution, genome evolution and compartmentalized energy metabolism with emphasis on chloroplasts, mitochondria, and hydrogenosomes.
News
20.11.2019 Award | William Martin

Web of Science, a database that provides citation data for many different academic disciplines, honors William Martin as "Highly Cited Researcher" due to his widely cited scientific publications.
Website: Web of Science Group
William Martins papers at Web of Science
Another analyses platform for citations is Google Scholar: Profiles for Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
20.10.2019 Press | Rheinpfalz am Sonntag
26.09.2019 Award | Sven Gould
26.08.2019 Press
23.08.2019 Press | The Yorkshire Post
22.08.2019 Press | Phys.org
22.08.2019 Publication | Trends in Plant Science
16.08.2019 Press | Westdeutsche Zeitung
16.08.2019 Press | Rheinische Post
31.07.2019 Award | William F. Martin
The VolkswagenStiftung will support Prof. Dr. William F. Martin in the next five years under the initiative "Life – A fresh scientific approach to the basic principles of life".
This project is in cooperation with PD Dr. Harun Tüysüz (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) and Prof. Dr. Joseph Moran (Université de Strasbourg, Insitut de Science et d'Ingénierie supramoléculaires, Laboratory of Chemical Catalysis, France).
Project title: "Forming catalysts: A basic principle of deep chemistry, life chemistry and life"
16.05.2019 Publication | Trends in Biochemical Sciences
07.05.2019 Publication | Trends in Microbiology
13.01.2019 Press | Welt am Sonntag
16.10.2018 Field Study | Bürgeruniversität in der Lehre
Members of the Institute of Molecular Evolution and pupils from Düsseldorf are on Elba to analyze the effects of plastic contamination on the marine environment. The project is supported by the HHU initiative "Bürgeruniversität in der Lehre" and documentated in a blog.
22.09.2018 Publication | Life
16.08.2018 Publication | PLoS Genetics
13.08.2018 Roundtable Discussion | ISME17
William Martin took part in the Roundtable Discussion "The Archaea-Eukaryote evolutionary pathway – Is the roadmap clear?" at the 17th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology in Leipzig, Germany.
The Roundtable Discussion was organized by Chuanlun Zhang (Southern University of Science and Technology, China), Ruixin Zhu (Tongji University, China) and Li Huang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China).
12.07.2018 Publication | Cell
12.07.2018 Publication | Cell
The Chara genome: Secondary complexity and implications for plant terrestrialization
Cell 174:448–464 (2018)
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.033
13.06.2018 Interview | Università di Padova
Il Bo Live from the Univeristy of Padova (Italy) interviewed Bill Martin about the first organism on Earth:
Com'era fatto il primo organismo mai vissuto sulla Terra?
07.06.2018 Klüh Prize| Archdiocese of Berlin
The Archbishop of Berlin, Dr. Heiner Koch, held the laudatio to the laureate, Prof. William Martin, at the award ceremony of the Klüh Prize in the Hotel Adlon (Berlin). Dr. Koch's laudatio and Prof. Martin's acceptance speech are available on the website of the Archdiocese of Berlin (in German).
19.05.2018 Press | Rheinische Post
19.05.2018 Press | Westdeutsche Zeitung
18.05.2018 Prize | William Martin
10.04.2018 Graduation | Cessa Rauch

Cessa Rauch successfully finished her doctorate with the thesis entitled
"Plastid longevity in sacoglossan sea slugs".
13.03.2018 Publication | Nature Ecology and Evolution