The more he explored his academic major, however, the more he found himself drawn specifically to the study of solid-state physics: the study of the composition and structure of condensed matter and solids. During his hours in the laboratory he was inspired by a professor to explore the new and growing area of physics called biophysics: the study of biology using the principles of physical science. In 1971, the same year he graduated with a diploma in physics from Munich's Technical University, Deisenhofer successfully published his first scientific paper in
Physical Review Letters. His university thesis meanwhile focused on the detection of terahertz-phonons in a ruby.
Deciding to continue his education in biophysics, in June of 1971 Deisenhofer enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the prestigious Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry near Munich, where he studied under the direction of Institute director Robert Huber and where he also became well versed in the technique of X-ray crystallography. X-ray crystallography--first used in 1912 by German scientist Max Theodore Felix von Laue to create X-ray diffraction images and employed as well during the mid-twentieth century by University of Cambridge biologists James Watson and Francis Crick as a means of confirming their model of the DNA molecule--is a technique whereby the atomic structure of a purified and crystallized water-soluble substance is studied by exposing the crystal to bursts of radiation of a pre-determined and controlled wavelength.
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