Werner Nachtigall

Who is Werner Nachtigall?

Werner Nachtigall 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" and also the "Society for Technical Biology and Bionics" 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.