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Prof. Dr. phil. K. Eduard Linsenmair

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Head of Department "Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology" at the Theodor-Boveri-Institute for Biological Sciences at the University of Würzburg

born 1940

University studies: Major: Zoology, in addition: Botany, Chemistry, Anthropology and Psychology at the Universities of Heidelberg, Freiburg i. Brsg., and Frankfurt a.M.

Dissertation subject: Etho-ecological investigation on semi terrestrial crabs at the Red Sea. Ph.D.-Degree: oral examination December 12, 1966 in the fields of Zoology, Biochemistry and Anthropology (Prof. Dr. M. Lindauer).
Award as "best dissertation of the year" by the Faculty for Natural Sciences of the University of Frankfurt (March 1967).

Positions held: 1967: teaching Assistant at the Anthropological Institute of the University of Frankfurt. 1967 until 1970: Research Assistant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) at the Zoological Institute of the University of Frankfurt. 1970 until 1972: Scientific Assistant ("Wissenschaftlicher Assistent") within the Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine at the University of Regenburg. Habilitation: December 1971.
April 26, 1972 until September 30, 1976: "Privatdozent" and Professor for Zoology ("Wiss. Rat und Professor", (HS2)) at Regensburg University.
September 30, 1976 until today: Chair for "Animal Ecology" (Zoology III) at the Zoological Institute; now: "Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology" at the Theodor-Boveri-Institute for Biological Sciences at the University of Würzburg). October 19, 1981: Offered "Chair for General Zoology" (in succession of Prof. Grell) at the Zoological Institute of the University of Tübingen; declined March 1983.
Many official functions within the self-administration of the Universities: for many years member of the executive committee of the Faculty (Fachbereichsrat; Dean of the Faculty; member of the Senat for several periods, since 1992 member of the financial commission (Haushaltskommission); since end of 1994 responsible for the student exchange programme with Duke University, Durham North Carolina, USA; etc..

Financial support and awards: constant support by the DFG; further on by DAAD, the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, Thyssen-Stiftung (construction of a permanent and well-equipped research station in the Comoé National Park in the Ivory Coast), Körber-Stiftung 1996 (for the construction of an canopy access system in French Guiana), ESF, GTZ etc.

Initiator and coordinator of the main emphasis programme of the DFG: "Mechanisms of the maintenance of tropical diversity". Co-organizer of two other main emphasis programmes of the DFG ("Biochemical and physiological mechanisms of ecological adaptations in animals" and "Chemical ecology - natural compounds as behavioral modificators").
Initiator and chairman of an ESF (European Science Foundation) programme on "Tropical canopy research", and co-initiator of the "Flanking programme for tropical ecology" of the GTZ and member of the programme and evaluating board.
President of the "Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie" (gtö, The Tropical Ecology Society).
Member of the National Committee for Global Change Research.
Member of the Scientific advisory board of the WWF, Research Institute Senckenberg, Natural History Museum Berlin; Head of the scientific advisory board and member of the curatorium of the ZMT (Centre for Marine Tropical ecology), Bremen

Honours: Körber European science award 1996; elected member of the Leopoldina (Halle), and the Academia Europea. Member of several scientific associations.

Managing editor of the leading international journal "Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology": 1988-1994.

Referee: for many national and international science promoting institutions, ministries, GTZ, universities, EU, UNEP etc..
Referee for a large number of scientific journals.
Member of the board of editors of the "Journal for Evolutionary Biology (1988-1990), "Ethology Ecology & Evolution (since its foundation). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 1994-98; Ecotropica since its foundation.
Supervisor of a large number of dissertations and diploma theses.

Research focus:

Main research: orientation physiology, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, and as main subject in recent years tropical biology.

Research Focus: tropical biology. Main aspects: tropical biodiversity, structures and structuring factors of tropical communities, adaptations to unpredictable conditions, particularly in organisms and communities of the West-African savannahs, ecosystem analysis of the savannah, conservation biology in the tropics, syn-ecology, ecophysiology and behavior ecology of tropical anuran and arthropods, canopy research, animal-plant interactions.

Spatial focal points:

West Africa (Ivory Coast) and South East Asia (Malaysia and Indonesia), also South America (Ecuador, French Guiana).

publications