OceanExpert ID : 11196
Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön
August-Thienemann Strasse 2
24306 Ploen
Germany
Type
Research
Telephone
+49 (4522) 763 - 0
Fax
+49 (4522) 763 - 310
EDMO code
Activities
The Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology exists in its current form since March 2007. Its previous name was Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology. It was founded by Emil Otto Zacharias in 1891 as "Biologische Station zu Plön" and was integrated into the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft in 1917 as "Hydrobiologische Anstalt", headed by August Thienemann. The German "Sundaexpedition" in 1928/29, in which Thienemann was heavily engaged, marked the start of the tropical limnology research at the institute. In 1948 the institute became part of Max Planck Society. The "Fuldastation" (later: "Limnologische Flussstation") in Schlitz was attached as fieldstation in 1949. In 1957, Harald Sioli became director and in 1966 the institute received the name Max Planck Institute for Limnology including the research units General Limnology (Jürgen Overbeck) and Tropical Ecology (Harald Sioli). Harald Sioli retired in 1978 and the new department Ecophysiology (Winfried Lampert) as well as the workgroup Tropical Ecology (Wolfgang Junk) was established in 1984. After the retirement of Jürgen Overbeck in 1991, the "Limnologische Flussstation" was continued as an independent workgroup in Schlitz, headed by Peter Zwick. The new department Evolutionary Ecology (Manfred Milinski) was established in 1999. This marked the shift to the new direction in evolutionary biology, which was completed after the retirement of Winfried Lampert and Peter Zwick in 2006, Wofgang Junk in 2007 and the start of the new department Evolutionary Genetics (Diethard Tautz) in 2007. The institute was renamed into MPI for Evolutionary Biology in March 2007. An independent DFG funded group "Evolutionary Dynamics", headed by Arne Traulsen, started in 2008. The next steps forward will be the recruitment of the head of the third department Evolutionary Theory and of an independent Max-Planck Research group in "Experimental Evolution". Together with the University in Kiel it is planned to establish a professor in "Evolutionary genomics of the intestinal microfllora", as part of the Excellence Cluster "Inflammation at Interfaces".
