Walter Heiligenberg

Walter F. Heiligenberg ( born January 31, 1938 in Berlin, † September 8, 1994 in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania ) was a German behavioral biologist and Neuroethologe.

Life

After graduating from the grammar school in Münster Holy Mountain began in 1958 in Münster study of zoology, botany and chemistry. Later he enrolled in Munich, circa 1964 doctorate under the Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen. In the following eight years Heiligenberg explored in Seewiesen the behavior of tropical fish and crickets. In 1972 he accepted an invitation from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego, where he was to study the behavior of weakly electric fish.

In 1976 he was professor and chair at the University of California at San Diego.

Died in 1991 Heiligenberg first wife Zsuzsa, with whom he had three children. In 1993 he married an Australian musician, whose daughter was born 18 days after his death.

Heiligenberg died in 1994 in the crash of USAir Flight 427 in Pennsylvania.

Work

Heiligenberg devoted himself thenceforth exploring the physiological basis of electric communication of these fish and the consequent behavior.

Walter Heiligenberg been a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Awards

• Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke
• Merit Award from the National Institute of Mental Health