Luc Hoffmann
| Luc Hoffmann | |
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Luc Hoffmann
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| Born |
Hans Lukas Hoffmann 23 January 1923 Basel, Switzerland |
| Died | 21 July 2016 (aged 93) Camargue, France |
| Occupation | Ornithologist, conservationist, philanthropist |
| Known for | Co-founder and first president of the WWF International |
Hans Lukas "Luc" Hoffmann (23 January 1923 – 21 July 2016) was a Swiss ornithologist, conservationist, and philanthropist. He co-founded the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands, and set up the Tour du Valat research centre in the Camargue area of France. In 2012, Luc Hoffmann's MAVA Foundation, along with WWF International, established the Luc Hoffmann Institute. He was the author of more than 60 books, mostly ornithological.
Luc Hoffmann was born in Basel, the second son of the businessman and art-lover Emanuel Hoffmann and the sculptor . His father died in a car crash when he was nine years old and the following year his older brother died of leukaemia. His mother then married the Swiss composer Paul Sacher. Despite the family’s great wealth, Hoffmann was raised frugally. His enthusiasm for the natural world developed during his childhood and he spent much of his free time bird watching in the Basel area. His first academic paper, “Der Durchzug der Strandvögel in der Umgebung Basels” (the passage of seabirds in the vicinity of Basel) appeared in Der Ornithologische Beobachter (the Bird Observer) in 1941, when he was still a schoolboy.
In 1941, he enrolled at the University of Basel, studying botany and zoology. In 1943 he was conscripted into the Swiss Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant. After the end of the second world war, Hoffmann conducted scientific research and earned a doctorate (PhD) for his work on the different color patterns of the chicks of the common tern (Sterna hirundo) in the Camargue on the Mediterranean coast of France. His supervisor at the University of Basel was Adolf Portmann.
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