Martin Heisenberg

Martin Heisenberg (born 7 August 1940 in Munich) is a German neurobiologist and geneticist. Before his retirement in 2008, he held the professorial chair for genetics and neurobiology at the Bio Centre of the University of Würzburg. Heisenberg studied chemistry and molecular biology in Munich, Tübingen and Pasadena. In 1975 he became Professor of genetics and neurobiology at the University of Würzburg. Heisenberg's work has focused on the neurogenetics of Drosophila (the fruit fly), with the aim of investigating the genetic foundations of the Drosophila brain by studying the effect of genetic mutations on brain function. He was elected as a member of the Leopoldina in 1989.

Martin Heisenberg is married to Apollonia, Countess of Eulenburg, a niece of philosopher and physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and former President Richard von Weizsäcker. They have four sons, including film director Benjamin Heisenberg. He is the brother of Jochen Heisenberg, a professor of physics recently retired from the University of New Hampshire. He is the son of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg, who is best known for the uncertainty principle.

Selected publications

• Gerhard Technau & Martin Heisenberg (1982). "Neural reorganization during metamorphosis of the corpora pedunculata in Drosophila melanogaster". Nature 295 (5848): 405–407. doi:10.1038/295405a0. PMID 6799834. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v295/n5848/abs/295405a0.html. Retrieved 2006-06-23. 

• JS de Belle, M Heisenberg (February 1994). "Associative odor learning in Drosophila abolished by chemical ablation of mushroom bodies". Science 263 (5147): 692–695. doi:10.1126/science.8303280. PMID 8303280. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/263/5147/692. Retrieved 2008-10-05.