Miguel Vences

Professor Miguel Vences (born 24 April 1969 in Cologne) is a German herpetologist. His research is focussed on the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar.

Vences attended the from 1979 to 1988, and graduated with the German Abitur. The following year he began to study Biology at the University of Cologne. There he met Frank Glaw, and as undergraduate students they undertook their first excursions to Madagascar. After completing the Vordiplom in 1993, Vences transferred to the University of Bonn and the , where he completed his Diplom studies. Vences continued his studies there as a PhD student under the supervision of until 2000. His thesis was on the evolutionary history of true frogs (Ranoidea) and related families in Madagascar. Thereafter, he worked for one year at the National Museum of Natural History of France in Paris, before returning to Germany in 2001 to work at the University of Konstanz. In 2002 he worked at the University of Amsterdam and the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam as assistant professor and Leader of the Vertebrate section. In 2005 he moved to the Braunschweig University of Technology as a professor of evolutionary biology, where he works to this day. In 2013 he was elected into the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.