He was born in 1950 in Oldenburg. He studied biology and mathematics in Bielefeld and Bochum, went to
Oxford University on a Heisenberg Scholarship and in 1987 became Professor of Zoology and Behavioural Ecology at
University of Bern. From 1999 to 2018 he has been Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Limnology, which in 2007 became the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. He has been an Honorary professor at
Kiel University since 2000.[1]
His main research fields are Co-operation, Sexual selection and Host-parasite co-evolution. He is a member of the
Leopoldina and the
Faculty of 1000.[2]
Publications
His publications include:
The collective-risk social dilemma and the prevention of dangerous climate change.
PNAS105:2291-2294 (2008) (with Sommerfeld, R. D., Krambeck, H.-J., Reed, F. A., Marotzke, J.)
The efficient interaction of indirect reciprocity and costly punishment.
Nature444:718-723 (2006) (with Rockenbach, B.)
Mate choice decisions of stickleback females predictably modified by MHC peptide ligands.
PNAS102:4414-4418 (2005) (with Griffiths, S., Wegner, K. M., Reusch, T. B. H., Haas-Assenbaum, A., Boehm, T.)
Parasite selection for immunogenetic optimality. Science301:1343 (2003) (with Wegner K. M., Kalbe M., Kurtz J., Reusch T. B. H.)
Reputation helps solve the 'tragedy of the commons'. Nature415:424-426 (2002) (with Semmann D., Krambeck H.-J.)