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 were directed toward the behavior of both: beasts and humans. My dissertation focused on a humble native vole and was one of the first attempts to combine physiology, behavior, and ecology of a species in 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 from 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 build his new institutes, sponsored by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, first in Buldern (Westphalia, 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. From 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 bioacoustics and communication. Co-hosting, with John Eisenberg of the 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.

In 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 continued my research and teaching at the University of Vienna as "ethologist in private practice."

In 2002, due to age-related handicaps, especially my increasing hearing loss I reduced my public activities to the internet.