Professor Rudiger Wehner

Rudiger Wehner graduated from Kaiserin Friedrich Gymnasium in 1960, and obtained his Ph.D in biology, chemistry, and philosophy from the Goethe University in Frankfurt in 1967. He spent his postdoctoral research at Yale University in the USA, then returned to Germany and was appointed professor of zoology, specifically physiology, at the University of Zurich in 1974, where he headed the Zoological Institute as director until his retirement in 2005. 

Professor Wehner showed that while roaming over desert terrain for distances of up to 100 meters, Cataglyphis employs a computational strategy called vector navigation: it measures all angles steered (by employing a neural compass) and all distances covered (by employing a neural odometer) and integrates these measures into a mean vector, which guides it back to its start. One of Wehner’s major ‘landmark’ discoveries is how Cataglyphis uses the pattern of polarized light in the sky (which humans are unable to see) as a compass to determine walking directions. Wehner and his team unraveled the computational and neurobiological details of the ant’s skylight compass, discovered and studied various mechanism of landmark guidance that complement the animal’s vector navigation system and simulated the animal’s navigational technique in computer software and implemented it a in robot (Sahabot) that navigates by polarized skylight cues just as Cataglyphis does. Furthermore, his finding that the ant’s brain is organized in a modular way, with separate sensory-motor systems devoted to different behavioral tasks, has important implications for understanding the general design features of larger brains such as those of birds and mammals.

Wehner recently extended his research scope to include studying the physiological and ecological framework within which the ant’s navigational skill has evolved. He found that the spatial and temporal foraging characteristics, a particular mode of respiration and special expression patterns of heat-shock genes allow for an extreme reduction of water loss and the most extreme heat tolerance observed in any terrestrial animal. Furthermore, Wehner performed molecular systematics and phylogeography to uncover the evolutionary history of Cataglyphis.

Professor Wehbner published four books, a 330-page Handbook chapter, and 225 scientific articles. His 1000-page Zoology textbook THE WEHNER/GEHRING, now in its 7th edition, is widely used and highly valued by colleagues and students alike. Wehner has received numerous awards and honors.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.