Photographs can help capture important milestones and memories in an organisation’s history. Here we’ve curated a sampling of photos of people, places, and discoveries from different time points in EMBL’s story. We look forward to adding to this collection in the coming years.

EMBL Heidelberg

Construction of EMBL Heidelberg in 1974. From the EMBL Archive.

The Membrane Team at EMBL in 1981. From the EMBL Archive.

Construction of the EMBL Advanced Training Centre began in 2006. From the EMBL Archive.

Foundation stone laying ceremony for the EMBL Imaging Centre in 2019. From the EMBL Archive.

EMBL Hamburg

Ken Holmes adjusting the first ever X-ray beamline at DESY. From the EMBL Archive.

Beamlines circa 1997. From the EMBL Archive.

Roelof Silfhout in 1998. From the EMBL Archive.

Council delegates visit Hamburg ‘Outstation’ Petra III in November 2012. Credit: Marietta Schupp/EMBL

EMBL Grenoble

The EMBL Grenoble ‘outstation’ in 1978. From the EMBL Archive.

EMBL Grenoble 1991 Lab Ski Day.  From the EMBL Archive.

Christoph Müller conferring with colleagues at EMBL Grenoble in 1998. From the EMBL Archive.

Team Leader Andrew McCarthy shows EMBL Council the Grenoble beamline in 2006. From the EMBL Archive.

EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)

Princess Anne at EMBL-EBI’s opening ceremony 1994.  From the EMBL Archive.

EMBL-EBI Main Building under construction. From the EMBL Archive.

Graham Cameron, developed concept for EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute. From the EMBL Archive.

(L-R) Rolf Apweiler, Janet Thornton, and Ewan Birney  in 2015. Credit: Jon Mold/EMBL

EMBL Rome (Monterotondo)

Christine Gurniak-Witke, lab member of the Witke Group in EMBL Rome in 2000. Credit: Udo Ringeisen/EMBL

Grand opening of the extension to the Monterotondo mouse facility, 2003.  From the EMBL Archive.

Outside the Monterotondo Building in the early 2000s. Credit: Marietta Schupp/EMBL

After a long career in science and eight years as Head of EMBL Rome, Phil Avner retired in 2020. Credit: Horst Hamann

EMBL Barcelona

At EMBL Barcelona’s signing ceremony in 2017, officially establishing EMBL’s sixth site.  Credit: Ivan Paulick

The first conference held at EMBL Barcelona (2017) with the theme: morphogenetic engineering. Credit: Carla Manzanas/EMBL 

The site’s first outreach activity in 2018: a school visit on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Credit: Carla Manzanas/EMBL

Collaboratively supported in 2023, µFabLab is a ‘makerspace’ to build micro- and macro-fabricated parts through rapid prototyping. Credit: Albert Català

Inauguration

Outside the EMBL inauguration, held at Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik. From the EMBL Archive, Frieda Glöckner material

Sir John Kendrew at the opening ceremony in the auditorium of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, From the EMBL Archive, Frieda Glöckner material

A post officer stamps specially designed envelope on the inauguration day of the Laboratory. From the EMBL Archive, Frieda Glöckner material

Inauguration of the Heidelberg Laboratory envelope and cancellation stamp. From the EMBL Archive.

Directors General

John Kendrew, EMBL Director General, 1974-1982. Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Lennart Philipson, EMBL Director General, 1982-1993. From the EMBL Archive.

Fotis C. Kafatos, EMBL Director General, 1993-2005. Credit: Penelope Masouri

Iain Mattaj, EMBL Director General, 2005-2019. From the EMBL Archive.

Edith Heard, EMBL Director General, 2019-present. Credit: Kinga Lubowiecka/EMBL

EMBL’s first three Directors General: Kafatos, Kendrew, and Philipson in 1995. From the EMBL Archive.

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