Roman Fyodorowitsch Hecker

Roman Fjodorowitsch Hecker (Robert Roman Gustav Wilhelm von Hecker, often RF Hecker, English: Roman Fedorovich Gekker or RF Gekker, Russian Роман Фёдорович Геккер ; born March 25, 1900 in Saint Petersburg , † August 15, 1991 in Moscow ) was a Russian paleontologist and geologist. In Russia he was considered a leading representative of paleoecology .

Hecker was the son of a doctor and attended a German school in Saint Petersburg. After graduating in 1917, he studied at the Mining Academy until 1923 and also at the Geographic Institute, where he graduated in biostratigraphy in 1925. While still a student he worked as a geologist, for example in the mapping of sources for building materials or oil shale exploration. His teachers included NF Pogrebow, the paleontologist NN Jakowlew , the professor of historical geology AA Borisjak and the paleontologist Dmitri Wassiljewitsch Naliwkin . He also supported Borisjak and Nawliwkin in the preparation of the lectures and with Nawliwkin he undertook investigations into paleoecology in the preparation of his book on facies studies, especially in the Russian Devonian . The research in Russia was influenced by the work of Louis Dollo and Othenio Abel . In 1937 he received the Russian doctorate (in biology) (corresponding to a habilitation). He later taught at Moscow's Lomonosov University and headed a laboratory at the Paleontological Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

He also dealt with mammoth finds in Siberia.

In 1964 he became a corresponding member of the Paleontological Society and in 1980 an honorary member of the Swedish Geological Society.

Since 1925 he was married to Yekaterina Lwowna Hecker (EL Gekker, nee Abakumow, 1897-1950), who was also a palaeontologist and with whom he published. Her son Iwan Romanowitsch Hecker (Gekker, 1927–1989) was a well-known plasma physicist and was involved in research on controlled nuclear fusion.

Fonts

• Handbook of Paleoecology, 1933 (Russian)
• Introduction to Paleoecology, New York, Elsevier 1965 (Russian original 1957)

literature

• VN Khodolov, AI Osipova: The 100th birthday of Roman Fedorovich Gekker , Lithology and Mineral Resources, Volume 35, 2000, p. 499
• R. Hecker - Bibliography.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In Russia, according to the article paleoecology in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979), the origins are traced back to Vladimir Onufrijewitsch Kowalewski , with important contributions from Alexander Petrowitsch Karpinski and NN Jakowlew, Hecker's teacher