Werner Nachtigall

Werner Nachtigall (born June 7, 1934 in Saaz, Czechoslovakia) is a German zoologist and biologist.

After graduating from high school in Augsburg, he studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in the fields of natural sciences biology, physics, chemistry and geography with a diploma in Technical Biology and Bionics. From 1959 to 1961 he was research assistant at the Radiobiology Institute in Neuherberg, later in the Zoological Institute of the University of Munich. His research interests during this time gave rise to questions that later led to the foundation of the field of bionics in Germany. In 1967 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1969 he was appointed professor and director of the Zoological Institute of Saarland University. In 1990 he initiated the field of study called "Technical Biology and Biomimetics" (which he supervised until his retirement in 2002) and also the "Society for Technical Biology and Bionics" (GTBB) of which he was the first chairman until 2003.

After his retirement in 2002 he became head of the BMBF-funded Competence Network Biomimetics BIOKON at the University of Saarland.

By making use of biostatistics, and also bringing together several scientific and engineering disciplines, his research which focused on mechanisms for movement in the animal kingdom led him to pioneer the field of bionics in Germany. Much of his published work centres on technology in the fields of biology, flight biomechanics and general bionics. In addition to technical scientific papers (over 300), he has published several popular books (over 30) as well as articles which has stimulated interest in this emerging field.

Professor Marianne Stokholm head of the department of Architecture & Design at Aalborg university (AAU) Denmark, writes: "The German biologist Werner Nachtigall has since the 1960's been occupied with bionics. His writing on the subject is among the best."

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