Siegfried Detke, PhD, associate professor and director of graduate education in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences, passed away in Grand Forks Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at the age of 59.
Born in Bobingen Germany, he spent his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Detke earned a B.S. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University and his PhD in Biochemistry from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Florida and the University of Chicago Medical School before coming to UND in December of 1987. Detke was a well-known scientist interested in understanding the mechanism of infectious disease at the genetic level. His work centered on the infectious process of a protozoan parasite, Leishmania, responsible for a disease that affects about 350 million people worldwide. Detke’s research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Microbiology. He served as the secretary-treasurer for the North Dakota Academy of Science.
Detke was an exceptional teacher. He taught basic biochemistry and molecular biology to medical, graduate, and undergraduate students and mentored one doctoral and three master’s degree students. His passion and commitment to his work was an inspiration to students and faculty alike. While he was happiest experimenting in his lab, he was also a bibliophile with a special interest in science fiction and a movie buff.
Dr. Detke is survived by his wife of 36 years, Jan Detke of Grand Forks; two sons, Karl of San Diego Calif., and Kyle of Lincoln Nebr.; his parents, Emil and Anna; sisters, Sigrid (Rick) Straka and Heidi Detke, all of Daytona Beach Fla.; and sister, Eleanor Detke of Cleveland.
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology marked the deaths of two faculty colleagues with a Remembrance Celebration on May 3, 2010, at 3:30 in the Reed Keller Auditorium, at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Gene Homandberg passed away on December 21, 2009. Family, colleagues, students, and friends attended the celebration.
