Eigen was born on 9 May 1927 in Bochum, the son of Hedwig (Feld) and Ernst Eigen, a chamber musician. As a child he developed a deep passion for music, and studied piano.
World War IIinterrupted

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Eigen received his Ph.D. at the University of Göttingen in 1951 under supervision of Arnold Eucken. In 1964 he presented the results of his research at a meeting of the Faraday Societyin

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Eigen was married to Elfriede Müller. The union produced two children, a boy and a girl. He later married Ruthild Winkler-Oswatitsch, a longtime scientific partner.

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Eigen won numerous awards for his research including:
• Otto Hahn Prize (1962)
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1967), shared with Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter, for his studies on the kinetics of extremely fast running

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Obituaries
• Slotnik, Daniel E. (14 February 2019). "Nobel winner put a clock to chemicals". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Honolulu. p. B6. Retrieved 20 May 2020 –

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• "The institute congratulates Manfred Eigen on his 90th birthday!" at mpibpc.mpg.de
• Manfred Eigen – Early childhood recollections about music on YouTube
• Manfred Eigen on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1967 Immeasurably Fast

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• Eigen, Manfred (2013). From strange simplicity to complex familiarity : a treatise on matter, information, life and thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-857021-9

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