Walter Heiligenberg

Walter F. Heiligenberg (January 31, 1938 – September 8, 1994) is best known for his contribution to neuroethology through his work on one of the best neurologically understood behavioral patterns in vertebrate, Eigenmannia (Zupanc and Bullock 2006). This weakly electric fish and the neural basis for its jamming avoidance response behavioral process was the main focus of his research, and is fully explored in his 1991 book, “Neural Nets in Electric Fish.” As an international scientist, he worked alongside other neuroethologists and researchers to further explain animal behavior in a comprehensive manner and “through the application of a strict analytical and quantitative method” (Zupanc 2004). The advancements within neuroethology today are still largely due to his influences, as his life was dedicated to researching that which could be applicable to “all complex nervous systems” and he “[investigated] the general principles of nature” (Autrum 1994).

Heiligenberg was born in Berlin, Germany, but moved to Münster soon afterwards (Autrum 1994). He then spent part of his early adulthood in Munich and Seewiesen before ultimately moving to San Diego, California, in 1972. Heiligenberg was killed in the crash of USAir Flight 427 on September 8, 1994, while on his way to deliver a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh (Leaders in Their Fields 1994).

Heiligenberg’s interest in ethology started at a young age, when he met Konrad Lorenz, one of the founders of modern ethology and head of a Max Planck research group, in 1953 (Zupance and Bullock 2006). Through Lorenz’s influence, his interest in fish and animal behavior thrived even before entering college (Autrum 1994).

He initially entered the University of Münster in 1958, but transferred to the University of Munich after Lorenz and fellow neuroethologist Erich von Holst established the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in a city approximately 20 miles from Munich, in Seewiesen (Bullock et al. 1995). Between these two colleges, his studies were spread between botany, zoology, physics, and mathematics, whose influence is clearly seen in his quantitative approaches in later research towards the neural bases of animal behavior (Zupanc and Bullock 2006). It was here that his ethological foundation was laid, as he “performed a quantitative analysis of the effect of motivational factors on the occurrence of various social behavioral patterns” through his doctoral thesis, “On causation of Behavioral Patterns in Chiclid Fish,” which was completed in 1963 under Lorenz and Hansjochem Autrum, a sensory physiologist (Carr 1994; Zupanc and Bullock 2006).

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