History

1918

As officially drawn up and notarized on April 03, 1918, the Ministry of State of the Royal House and the Ministries for Domestic and Foreign Affairs established the research institute as public trust. Appointed Founding Director was Privy Councilor Professor Theodor Paul, MD, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Applied Chemistry at the University of Munich, who initiated the foundation. After inflation devalued the endowment fund in 1923, the 'Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Lebensmittelchemie' (DFA; German Research Centre for Food Chemistry) continued to operate closely linked to the University's Applied Chemistry Laboratory.

1929

Founding Professor Theodor Paul died on September 30, 1928. His successor, Professor Dr. Benno Bleyer, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Food Chemistry at the University of Munich, started to further develop the institute on April 01, 1928.

1944

Military air strikes obliterated the institute and almost all its property.

1945

Professor Dr. Benno Bleyer, Director of the institute, died on November 24, 1945.

1946

The institute continued to be home to scientists in makeshift accommodations in Dachau, Munich-Nymphenburg, and in Munich-Schwabing.

1947

Professor Dr. S. Walter Souci, who provisionally managed the institute as acting chairman, was appointed director on July 16, 1946.

1948

The Bavarian Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs and the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry provide funding for the institute.

1951

The scientists of the institute move into the newly constructed laboratories in the Wenschow Building in Munich-Schwabing.

1968

After serving as director of the institute for 23 years, Professor Siegfried Walter Souci retired in 1968.

1969

On February 01, Professor Dr. Hans-Dieter Belitz, chair of the Institute for Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, was appointed director of the institute.

1977

Since January 01, the institute receives financing pursuant to a framework agreement between the German Federal Government and the German States on the joint funding of scientific projects according to Article 91b GG (German Constitutional Law). The institute moved into new laboratories in the building of the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences of the Technical University of Munich.

1993

After a serious illness, the institute director Professor Dr. Hans-Dieter Belitz passed away on March 31.

1995

On August 01, Professor Dr. Peter Schieberle, Chair of Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, was appointed director of the institute.

2010

In April, the institute moved into their new laboratories on the TUM Life Science Campus Weihenstephan in Freising.

2017

On March 31, Professor Dr. Peter Schieberle retired. As of August 15, Professor Dr. Thomas Hofmann, Vice President of the Research & Innovation of the Technical University of Munich and Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensory Science at the Life Science Campus Weihenstephan was appointed the new director of the institute.

Accounting for its new structural organization as well as scientific and strategic focus, the institute was renamed on September 07 into 'Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (in short: Leibniz-LSB@TUM).

2018

On Friday, 15th June 2018, the institute celebrated its 100-Year Anniversary.

Program of the Anniversary Ceremony

Movie: 100 Jahre Molekulare Lebensmittel- und Ernährungsforschung (100 Years of Molecular Food and Nutrition Research)

October 17, 2018, the Board of Trustees of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has elected Prof. Thomas Hofmann (50) as the new President of TUM. On October 1, 2019, Hofmann will take over from Prof. Wolfgang A. Herrmann, whose far-reaching reforms in his 23-year tenure saw TUM rise to international top level.

More information...

2019

On 01 November 2019, Prof. Dr. Veronika Somoza took up her new post as Director of the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM). She succeeds Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofmann, who left the Leibniz Institute to devote himself entirely to his duties as the new President of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

The position of the Director is linked to a professorship for Nutritional Systems Biology at the Department of Nutritional and Food Sciences of the TUM School of Life Sciences at the modern Weihenstephan Campus.