Deisenhofer, Johann (1943-...), a German biophysicist, with his colleagues Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel, painstakingly worked out the positions of over 10,000 atoms making up a complex molecule. The molecule plays a key role in photosynthesis, a process in which complex materials of life are built up using the energy of sunlight. The work of Deisenhofer and his colleagues revealed much information about photosynthesis in general. The three scientists won the 1988 Nobel Prize for chemistry for this work.