The Laboratory was shocked and saddened by the death of Matti.

He came to EMBL as a Group Leader in 1990. His interests in biology and structural analysis were very wide, and his contributions numerous. He specialized in Biochemistry and Structural Biology, with main interests in membrane and modular signalling proteins, and in structure and function of enzymes or protein machines involved in oxidation/ reduction and energy metabolism. In 1996, after an open search to which he was drafted by his colleagues, he was appointed Coordinator of the Structural Biology Programme in Heidelberg, which he led until his death. He proposed and achieved the re-naming of his Programme as Structural and Computational Biology. He had a strong belief that computational approaches had to be integrated into experimental biology, and therefore he carved out of the Structures Programme the resources to reinforce Computational Biology in Heidelberg, in parallel to the EBI Outstation. Another passion of his was evolution – an interest he brought in to his own work, and advocated as part of the EMBL Scientific Programme. Within Structural Biology he had a strong commitment to electron microscopy, and he worked assiduously to persuade us to develop an EM core facility to serve both structural and cellular biology, and to furnish it with advanced equipment making it a facility broadly useful to the European scientific community. This facility will be dedicated to his memory. His broad interests and sense of service to the community led him to accept the responsibility of serving as managing editor of the scientific journal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, FEBS Letters.

In the EMBL community Matti was deeply appreciated for his science, his humanity and his quiet but robust leadership. He was an excellent manager of his Programme and used its resources to best advantage. He was kind and thoughtful for all people, but also insisted on standards of performance, the serving of the common good, and the placing of priority on the younger scientists. He loved EMBL passionately, considering it the model of how a community of scientists should function. His thoughtfulness and community spirit extended to his sense of social justice and his political beliefs. I admired him for his constructive attitude, his excellent citizenship in the Laboratory, his high level of culture and his mature, reflective habits of thought.

He will be deeply missed by his friends and colleagues at EMBL. May he rest in peace.

by Fotis C. Kafatos