My profession

My Profession

Here you will find some information about my profession. I am holding a PHD degree in Biology. I used to work in the field of migration and orientation of birds.

I started to study Biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt in the fall of 1979. I was interested in Biology from schooldays on and was especially interested in the work of former Nobel price winner Konrad Lorenz. So i joined the groupe of Professor Wiltschko in the early 80´s. In my diploma work i was studying the orientation behaviour of homing pigeons. The title of my diploma was „Die Orientierung anosmischer Brieftauben“ (The orientation behaviour of anosmic pigeons).

Just in case you don´t know, how a homing pigeon looks like:

No, you are not pissed, it really moves!

After university i worked for 2 1/2 years for the HGON a agency which is interested in protecting nature and also in ornitology. I worked on concepts to protect a biotop called „Streuobstwiese“ a combined living room for many birds, insects and plants. This biotop was common around villages till the 60´s of the last century but is nowerdays endangered by urbanisation and industrial agriculture. I also worked in the field of protecting the barn owl (Tyto alba).

After that, i joined university again in 1988 back to my old working groupe with professor Wiltschko. I was working on the thesis „Das Ortsgedächtnis bei Vögeln“ (How do Birds remember spaces). I worked with European Jays (Garrulus glandarius) and Marsh Tits (Parus palustris) in Germany but did most of my PHD studies in the Avian Cognition Laboratory of the NAU (Northern Arizona University) in Flagstaff, AZ working in Professor R. Balda groupe with Clark´s Nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana).

Here are some pictures of my birds:

European Jay Marsh Tit Clarks Nutcracker

 

Here is a picture of the ACL building in Flagstaff.

 

In case you would like to read my thesis, „Das Ortsgedächtnis bei Vögeln“ you can download it in an Acrobat Reader format..

Because i was not able to find a job as an Biologist after my PHD i took cources in PC Service and network management. I am a network spezialist and MCP (Microsoft certified Professional) for Windows 2000 and a computer technitian.

After the PC service courses I found a job working as a Biological technical assistant in the departement of Physiology in the medical part of Frankfurt university.

Since summer 2018 i am retired and a fulltime Hamradio operator.