Peter Agre '70, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry
Fall 2003

Peter Agre visits with an Augsburg chemistry student during a lab session.

Peter Agre ’70 received the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in discovering the existence of proteins that he named “aquaporins,” that are responsible for the passage of water across cell membranes, a process essential to all living things. Agre shared the $1.3 million prize with Roderick MacKinnon, of Rockefeller University.

Agre is a Minnesota native, born in Northfield where his father, Courtland, taught chemistry at St. Olaf College until a move to Augsburg College in 1959.

Peter Agre graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis and then attended Augsburg College. It was here that Agre truly connected with several professors, and was able to complete a major in chemistry in two-and-a-half years, culminating in a decision to become a medical doctor.

During medical school at Johns Hopkins University, Agre began gravitating toward research. “I wanted the kind of career where I could help people and do useful work that helped people—both as individual patients and by working on disease mechanisms,” Agre explains. “That’s what really got me into the sciences.”

In February, 2004 Agre returned to the Twin Cities and included stops at his high school alma mater and Augsburg. His message to students: “Whatever it is that captures your interest—you should go for it. There’s no limit in life. You can do whatever you want.”

While at Augsburg, Agre had a chance to greet several of his former Augsburg professors—chemistry professors John Holum and Arlin Gyberg, math professor Henry Follingstad, and biology professor Ralph Sulerud, among others—and reiterated their contribution to shaping his science interests and career direction.

Agre used his public forum this year to advocate for science education and the necessity for every person to be educated in science. He believes that although science is important, liberal arts are critical to educate people in many different areas for a lifetime, “All the good in my life happened because of my education.”