Ernst-Detlef Schulze receives Ernst Haeckel Prize of the European Ecological Federation

21. August 2013
For his outstanding contribution to the European ecological research Ernst-Detlef Schulze is rewarded with the Ernst Haeckel Prize of the European Ecological Federation. The award ceremony will be on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 at the International Congress of Ecology in London.

The award

The European Ecological Federation (EEF), the umbrella ornaization of the ecological societies of Europea announced the Ernst Haeckel Prize for the first time in 2011 to reward senior ecologists for their scientific achievements. Together with the British Ecological Society which is celebrating its centenary this year, the EEF and the International Association for Ecology organize the International Congress of Ecology in London from August 18 to 23, 2013.

The laureate

Professor Ernst-Detlef Schulze is the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, who, after his official retirement in 2009, continues his research activities in various fields of ecological sciences and nature protection. Schulze, born in 1941, studied forestry and biology and in 1997 he exchanged his professor-ship at the University of Bayreuth with the directorship at the newly founded MPI for Biogeochemistry in Jena. His scientific career began with investigating the linkages between plant functions and the cycling of carbon, water and nitrogen. He subsequently enlarged his scientific fields to the observation of large scale ecosystems and the significance of biodiversity in the global element cycles. Schulze has made seminal contributions to the identification and quantification of carbon sources and sinks with the aim to better understand the causes of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect.

Currently Professor Schulze is engaged in studying ecophysiological processes in trees, exploring continental transects in Australia and Siberia as well as studying soil processes. Being a forester himself Ernst-Detlef Schulze feels very strongly about the linkages between nature and species conservation and the economic aspects of forest management. Over the past decades Ernst-Detlef Schulze received numerous awards and recognitions such as the Bavarian State Medal in Silver (1990), the Max Planck Research Prize (1992), the Bullard Prize of the Harward University (1997), the Vernadsky Medal of the European Geos-ciences Union (2004), the Deutsche Umweltpreis (2008), and the appointment as leading scientist at the Siberian Federal University of Krasnoyarsk connected with a fellowship of the Russian government (2010). The Ernst Haeckel Prize is now rewarding the ‘senior ecologist’ for his contributions to the European ecological science– congratulations!
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