Staff and students at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) have been remembering their much-loved friend and colleague, Dr Holger Kramer, who died suddenly on Tuesday 23 August 2022.

Holger led the Biological Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility at the LMS between 2016 and 2021. He was known by colleagues to be a meticulous and talented scientist, much admired by those who worked with him. He is remembered for his personal and professional hallmarks of characteristic patience, intelligence and good humour. Holger was a collaborative innovator, with an infectious enthusiasm to push technical boundaries enabling the most challenging experiments to be attempted and innovative discoveries made. 

Holger was a chemist by training having received a degree in chemistry from the University of Marburg, Germany, a master’s degree from the University of Birmingham and a PhD on the Synthesis of Glycoproteins and C-linked Glycopeptides, from the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford. Holger honed his expertise in mass spectrometry as a postdoc in Professor Benedikt Kessler’s laboratory in Oxford, joining us at the LMS in the Proteomics Facility in 2016 until he was appointed to the position of Head of the Mass Spectrometry Facility at the MRC LMB in Cambridge, where he led a small team in quantitative high-resolution analysis of proteins and peptides.

During his 5 years at the LMS, Holger oversaw a major expansion of the core facility, establishing Metabolomics and Imaging Mass Spectrometry as a professional service provision for the first time. He successfully forged collaborations with Imperial College London as well as MRC staff, enabling the work of research groups across a wide range of scientific discovery areas. Always proactive in support of his staff, Holger encouraged career progression and staff development leading to the later establishment of a Proteomics Bioinformatics provision within the facility.  

“Holger was someone able to help researchers ‘dream big’ about what Mass Spectroscopy could offer. He was a remarkable teacher, scientist and friend, and will be sorely missed by everyone at the LMS who knew him.”

Dame Professor Amanda Fisher

Beyond his professional collaboration and support, he is also remembered for his personal qualities and wide interests ranging from politics and current affairs to gardening “always with a smile, readily approachable and generous with his time.” He is remembered for his  infectious laugh and quick-witted sense of humour.  

“In the end if we could distill the recollections and thoughts of colleagues and friends into a single reflection, it would be that he left a positive memory with all of us.” He will be greatly missed. We would like to express our deepest condolences to his family for their loss.