Bhakdi studied at the Universities of Bonn, Gießen, Mainz and Copenhagen, and at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg.
He studied medicine at the University of Bonn from 1963 to 1970, during part of which (from 1966 to 1970) he was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service. Bhakdi worked for a while as a private assistant to the internal medicine specialist Walter Siegenthaler. In February 1971 he received his doctorate in medicine. From 1972 to 1978, he studied at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg on scholarships from the Max Planck Society at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
He worked at the University of Copenhagen for a year before moving to the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, where he worked from 1977 to 1990. In July 1979 he habilitated.
Scientific and medical career
Bhakdi was appointed C2 professor at Gießen in 1982. He spent a further year in Copenhagen and became C3 professor of medical microbiology (at Gießen again) in 1987 before being appointed to the University of Mainz in 1990. From 1991 he headed the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene as a C4 professor.
Bhakdi retired on 1 April 2012. Since 2016 he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Kiel.
Prior to his retirement, Bhakdi produced scientific work in fields such as bacteriology and atherosclerosis, and published hundreds of scientific articles in these areas. Awards he received include the Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Memberships and functions
Member of the Collaborative Research Centres of the German Research Foundation “Proteins as Tools in Biology” at the University of Giessen (1987-1990),Deputy Spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center “Immunopathogenesis” (1990-1999)
Spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center “490 Infection and Persistence in Infections” in Mainz (2000-2011).
He was Editor in Chief of Medical Microbiology and Immunology from 1990 to 2012
Professional awards
1979 Preis der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
1980 Konstanzer Medizinischer Förderpreis
1987 Preis der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie
1988 Dr.-Friedrich-Sasse-Preis
1989 Ludwig-Schunk-Preis für Humanmedizin
1989 Robert-Koch-Förderpreis of Clausthal-Zellerfeld
1991 Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize
2001 Aronson Prize for „wegweisende Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet des Komplementsystems und bakterieller Toxine“ tr. “pioneering work in the field of the complement system and bacterial toxins”
2005 H. W. Hauss Award
2005 Verdienstorden des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz
2009 Rudolf-Schönheimer Medal of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Arterioskleroseforschung
