Berthold Karl Hölldobler
BVO (born 25 June 1936) is a German
zoologist
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
,
sociobiologist and
evolutionary biologist who studies evolution and social organization in ants. He is the author of several books, including ''
The Ants'', for which he and his co-author,
E. O. Wilson, received the
Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction writing in 1991.
Biography
Hölldobler was born June 25, 1936, in
Erling-Andechs, Bavaria, Germany;
he was the son of Karl and Maria Hölldobler. He studied biology and chemistry at the
University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...
. His doctoral thesis was on the social behavior of the male
carpenter ant
Carpenter ants (''Camponotus'' spp.) are a genus of large ants (workers ) indigenous to many parts of the world.
True carpenter ants build nests inside wood, consisting of galleries chewed out with their mandibles or jaws, preferably in dead, ...
and their role in the organization of carpenter ant societies. He was named professor of zoology at the
University of Frankfurt in 1971. From 1973 to 1990, he was professor of biology and the
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, Massachusetts. In 1989, he returned to Germany to accept the chair of behavioral physiology and sociobiology at the Theodor-Boveri-Institute of the University of Würzburg. From 2002 to 2008 Hölldobler was an Andrew D. White Professor at Large at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
in Ithaca, New York. Since his retirement in 2004 Hölldobler has worked as a research professor in the School of Life Sciences at
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
in
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...
. There he is one of the founders of the Social Insect Research Group (SIRG) and the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity.
Research fields and publications
Hölldobler is one of the world's leading experts in
myrmecology
Myrmecology (; from Greek: μύρμηξ, ''myrmex'', "ant" and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a branch of entomology focusing on the study of ants. Ants continue to be a model of choice for the study of questions on the evolution of social ...
. His experimental and theoretical contributions cover
sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of ...
,
behavioral ecology
Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for ethology, animal behavior due to ecology, ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined Tinbergen's f ...
, and
chemical ecology
A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...
. His primary study subjects are social insects and in particular ants. His work has provided valuable insights into mating strategies, regulation of reproduction, the evolution of
social parasitism, chemical communications, and the concept of "
superorganisms". Publications on these topics include:
* 1965. with U. Maschwitz, ''Der Hochzeitsschwarm der Rossameise Camponotus herculeanus L. (Hym. Formicidae)''. Z. Vergl. Physiol. 50:551-568
* 1971. ''Sex pheromone in the ant Xenomyrmex floridanus'' J. Insect. Physiol. 17:1497-1499
* 1973. with M. Wüst ''Ein Sexualpheromon bei der Pharaoameise Monomorium pharaonis (L.)'' Z. Tierpsychol. 32:1-9
* 1974. ''Home range orientation and territoriality in harvesting ants'' Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 71:3274-3277
* 1976. ''Recruitment behavior, home range orientation and territoriality in harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex'' Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 1:3-44
* 1978. with H. Engel, ''Tergal and sternal glands in ants'' Psyche 85:285-330
* 1980. with C. Lumsden, ''Territorial Strategies in Ants Science'' 210:732-739
* 1982. with H. Engel, R.W. Taylor, ''A New Sternal Gland in Ants and its Function in Chemical Communication'' Naturwissenschaften 69:90
* 1983. with E.O. Wilson, ''Queen Control in Colonies of Weaver Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)'' Ann. of the Ent. Soc. of America 76:235-238
* 1984. with N.F. Carlin, ''Nestmate and Kin Recognition in Interspecific Mixed Colonies of Ants'' Science 222:1027-1029
* 1987. with N.F. Carlin, ''Anonymity and specificity in the chemical communication signals of social insects'' J. Comp. Physiol. A 161:567-581
* 1992. with K. Sommer, ''Coexistence and dominance among queens and mated workers in the ant Pachycondyla tridentata'' Naturwissenschaften 19:470-472
* 1998. with M. Obermayer, G.D. Alpert, ''Chemical trail communication in the amblyoponine species Mystrium rogeri Forel (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Ponerinae) Chemoecology'', 8:119-123
* 1999 with K. Tsuji, K. Egashira, ''Regulation of worker reproduction by direct physical contact in the ant Diacamma sp. from Japan'' Animal Behaviour 58:337-343
* 2003. with J. Gadau, C.P. Strehl, J. Oettler, ''Determinants of intracolonial relatedness in Pogonomyrmex rugosus (Hymenoptera; Formicidae) – mating frequency and brood raids'', Molecular Ecology 12: 1931-1938
* 1999. with J. Liebig, C. Peeters, ''Worker policing limits the number of reproductives in a ponerine ant'' Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266:1865-1870
Awards
*
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1980)
*
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the
Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (1990)
*
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
(1991) for ''The Ants'' together with
Edward O. Wilson
* U.S. Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
* Werner Heisenberg-Medal of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
*
Körberpreis for the European Science (1996)
* Karl Ritter von Frisch Medal and Science Prize of the German Zoological Society (1996)
* Benjamin Franklin-Wilhelm v. Humboldt Prize of the German-American Academic Council ( 1999)
*
Honorary doctor Biology of the
University of Konstanz (2000)
*
Order of Merit First Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (2000)
*
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2003)
* Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftspreis (2004)
* Treviranus-Medal of the Verband deutscher Biologen (vdbiol) (2006)
*
Lichtenberg Medal (2010)
* Ernst-Jünger-Prize for Entomology Baden-Württemberg (2010)
*
Cothenius Medal in Gold of the
Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (2011)
* Exemplar Award by the American Animal Behavior Society (2013)
* Fabricius medal (2019) (German entomological society)
Academic associations
* Fellow of the American Animal Behavior Society (1992)
*
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1986 korrespondierend, 1995 ordentlich)
*
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
*
Deutsche Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina (1975)
* Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (1979)
*
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...
(1994)
*
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1995)
*
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(United States) (1998)
*
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
(1997)
* Fellow of the
Entomological Society of America
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...
(2019)
Documentary films
In addition to his published scientific papers and books, Hölldobler's work was the subject of the documentary film ''Ants - Nature's Secret Power'' the winner of the 2005 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festivals Special Jury Prize.
*
*
*
Books
* Bert Hölldobler, E.O. Wilson: ''
The Ants'',
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou.
The pres ...
, 1990,
* Bert Hölldobler, E.O. Wilson: ''
Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration'', 1994,
* Bert Hölldobler, E.O. Wilson: ''The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies'', W.W. Norton, 2008.
* Bert Hölldobler, E.O. Wilson: ''The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct'', W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011,
* Bert Hölldobler, Christina L. Kwapich: ''The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts'', Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2022,
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
Curriculum vitae
Faculty website
Darwin Distinguished Lecture Series
Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival The Social Nature of Nature - Ask A Biologist Audio Interview
Web interviews
Hölldobler's 2007 interview on the ''
Ask A Biologist'' podcast program details his early life growing up in Germany as well as his interest in ants and writing.
*
*
*
UC Riverside. Leading Entomologist to Give Talk at UC Riverside on Communication and Cooperation in Ant Societies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holldobler, Bert
1936 births
Living people
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners
German entomologists
Myrmecologists
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction winners
University of Würzburg alumni
Academic staff of the University of Würzburg
Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt
Harvard University faculty
Cornell University faculty
Arizona State University faculty
20th-century German writers
21st-century German writers
21st-century German male writers
Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Members of Academia Europaea
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the Entomological Society of America
People from Starnberg (district)
German expatriate academics in the United States
Chemical ecologists
Entomological writers
Sociobiologists
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Recipients of the Cothenius Medal