Ulrich Loening obituary

"My husband, Ulrich Loening, who has died aged 94, was a lecturer first in the botany and then in the zoology departments (now the molecular plant sciences and biological sciences departments) of Edinburgh University. He engaged in fundamental research and made significant contributions to the developing science of molecular biology. He had always had a great interest and concern for the natural world."

"After the establishment by Conrad Waddington, a professor of genetics, of the school of the man-made future at Edinburgh, Ulrich became actively involved in environmental and green issues. In 1984 Ulrich was appointed director of the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE) at the university. Human ecology was a new and developing concept, which broadened environmental science to encompass the study of all aspects of human behaviour that affects the biosphere."

"Ulrich was born in Berlin to Lilli (nee Cohn) and Erich Loening, a photochemist who developed early colour printing methods and later worked for Kodak. His parents had moved from Berlin to London in 1937 to escape Nazi persecution. In Ulrich's teenage years the family lived in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, a centre of Quakerism. Although he never became a member of the Society of Friends, he attended Quaker meetings and was influenced by their thinking."

Ulrich Loening was born in Berlin to Lilli and Erich Loening; his family moved to London in 1937 to escape Nazi persecution. He grew up in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, and was influenced by Quaker ideas. Early rural experiences fostered interests in nature, organic agriculture, gardening, beekeeping and poultry. He studied biochemistry at Wadham College, Oxford, earning a doctorate and graduating in 1954. He met his future wife in 1955 while performing music; they married in 1957 and moved to Edinburgh in 1959. He held an Agricultural Research Council fellowship, lectured in botany and zoology, contributed to molecular biology, and in 1984 became director of the Centre for Human Ecology.

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