Rüdiger Wehner

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Rüdiger Wehner (2012)

Rüdiger Wehner (born February 6, 1940 in Nuremberg ) is a German neuro , sensory and behavioral biologist.

Life

Rüdiger Wehner studied zoology, chemistry and philosophy at the universities of Frankfurt and Munich . In 1967 he received his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt under Martin Lindauer with a thesis on the subject of " Physiology of Form Vision in Bees ". In the same year he went to Ernst Hadorn as a research assistant at the Zoological Institute of the University of Zurich , where he completed his habilitation in 1970. After two research stays at Yale University and Cornell University, he was appointed associate professor in 1972 and full professor at the Zoological Institute in Zurich in 1976 , which he also headed as director from 1986 until his retirement in 2005. From 2005 to 2008 he was an emeritus research professor at the University of Zurich. In 2007 he received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, endowed with 65,000 euros, and decided on a visiting professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Würzburg , where he worked until 2010.

He is married to the biologist Sibylle Segesser von Brunegg.

Research and Teaching

In his research work, Rüdiger Wehner sought to combine experimental behavioral research in the field and sensory and neurobiology in the laboratory. Using the example of the orientation services of social insects , among which he chose the North African desert ant Cataglyphis as an animal model, he was able to show that it has several navigation modules with which it reacts to visual stimuli such as sky and landmarks and then uses motor programs to measure distances . In this way, the ants manage to find their way back to their nest in a straight line after their forays, even if they have previously spent a period of several weeks in a dark, underground burrow. Wehner was also able to prove that the ants are capable of so-called " path integration ", which precisely shows them the length of the return path.

In his research, Wehner always started from the observed behavioral performance of ants and then looked for the sensory and neural mechanisms responsible for this. In the end, he expanded the consideration of his research results to include ecological and evolutionary aspects.

In the German-speaking countries he is particularly known as the co-author of the standard textbook "General Zoology", which was founded by Alfred Kühn and afterwards (by Ernst Hadorn and Wehner) became a term in biological university teaching as " Hadorn / Wehner ". In its 25th edition, Walter Gehring is co-author of the book now known as " Wehner / Gehring ".

Honors and memberships

Works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ member entry of Rüdiger Wehner at the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz , accessed on 06.11.17
  2. ↑ Member entry by Rüdiger Wehner (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ Member entry of Rüdiger Wehner at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on July 15, 2016.
  4. ↑ Member History: Rüdiger Wehner. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 9, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Speech at the honorary doctorate Rüdiger Wehner
  6. ↑ In search of the compass in the ant brain - Swiss scientist researches as a Humboldt Prize winner at the Biozentrum , University of Würzburg, April 24, 2007 ( Memento from January 6, 2013 in the archive.today web archive )
  7. ↑ Desert ants on stilts. In: FAZ . April 3, 2007 (accessed August 5, 2012)
  8. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6974449_The_Ant_Odometer_Stepping_on_Stilts_and_Stumps
personal data
SURNAME Wehner, Rudiger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neuro, sensory and behavioral biologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg