Rudolf Arthur Pfeiffer

Rudolf Arthur Pfeiffer began his medical studies in Saarbrücken, continuing at the universities of Vienna, Frankfurt and Heidelberg. He obtained his medical qualification at Heidelberg in 1959 and began his career at the University of Münster as a scientific assistant at the Institute for Human Genetics at the Children's Clinic. Here he was habilitated for paediatrics in 1965. Following almost eight years as a teacher at the Münsteraner Institut für Humangenetik, he was appointed to the newly established chair of human genetic sat the medical academy of Lübeck in 1973. In 1978 he accepted an invitation to the institute of human genetics and anthropology at the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, succeeding professor Gerhard Koch.

Pfeiffer was one of the first authors to describe thalidomide embryopathy and he has published widely in the field of medical genetics. His bibliography count more than 500 items. In 2000 he was made a doctor of honour at the University of Rennes. He was a founding member of the European Society for Genetic Counselling. He was emerited in 1999. He is deeply interested in music and piano playing.

Pfeiffer is now (2004) emerited director of the Institute for Human Genetics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.