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| Curriculum
Vitae Wolfgang M. Schleidt |
| I
was born 18 December 1927 in Vienna, Austria to parents, who were still
close to our ancestors' peasant stock. Here I received my formal education
through high school, which was cut short when 1944, before my 17th birthday,
I was drafted into the German Army. Luckily I survived a close encounter
with a Soviet tank, that determined my further career: a severe injury
of my left hand literally shattered my hopes to enter medical school, and
as a substitute I choose zoology and anthropology. |
| From
the very beginning my special interests was directed toward the behavior
of both: beasts and humans. My dissertation, focused on a humble native
vole, was one of the first attempts to combine physiology, behavior and
ecology of a species to a comprehensive life history with a strong evolutionary
slant, e.g. an analysis of the behavior of newborn mammals that included
a sample of human babies. |
| Konrad
Lorenz, soon after his return form a Russian POW camp, noticed my skills
not only as a scientist but also as a maker of things and manager. When,
in 1950, his hopes materialized for a new start in Germany, he asked me
to become his assistant, especially to help him to build his new institutes,
sponsored by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, first in Buldern (Westfalia,
Germany) and later the famous Max-Planck-Institute for Behavioral Physiology
in Seewiesen (Bavaria). In this setting, I was able to start my decisive
investigations of basic ethological concepts, especially of "Innate Releasing
Mechanisms" and "Fixed Action Patterns". |
| In
1964 I followed an Invitation as Research Associate with Peter H. Klopfer
and Donald K. Adams at Duke University, Durham, N.C., U.S.A. 1965 to 1985
I headed a renowned ethological research team at the College Park Campus
of the University of Maryland (U.S.A.), specializing in the area of bio-acoustics
and communication. Co-hosting, with John Eisenberg, Smithsonian Institution,
the first meeting in the U.S.A. of the International Ethological Conference
in 1973 was one of the highlights during this phase. |
| 1985
I was invited back to Austria to head the Konrad Lorenz Institute for behavioral
studies of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna. I was also teaching
ethology at the University and in 1989 I was granted the title "ausserordentlicher
Professor." 1992 I retired from my position with the Academy, but continue
my research and teaching at the University of Vienna as "ethologist in
private practice." |
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