Jürgen Herrmann

Jürgen Herrmann grew up in post-World War II Northern Germany and graduated in medicine from the University of Hamburg in 1966. His interest in medical genetics was aroused by professor Widukind Lenz (1919-) who, in 1961, had established the use of thalidomide by pregnant women as the cause of birth defects. In 1967, on Lenz's recommendation, Herrmann commenced a one-year fellowship with John Marius Opitz (1935-). Like Herrmann, Opitz was born in Germany but had moved to the USA. Herrmann remained in Wisconsin for the next 12 years. During this period he worked with Opitz's colleague, Pallister, in a programme of syndromic delineation. In 1969 Herrmann married Pallister's daughter. In 1978 Herrmann moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and four years later he entered private practice.