Wilhelm Lauer
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| Wilhelm Lauer | |
|---|---|
 Wilhelm Lauer 27 Juni 2006.jpg Wilhelm Lauer 27 June 2006 | |
| Born | February 1, 1923 Oberwesel, West Germany |
| 💀Died | July 24, 2007 Wuppertal, West GermanyJuly 24, 2007 |
| 🏳️ Nationality | German |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | Germany, West Germany |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of Bonn |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | climate and vegetation geography of the tropics Wilhelm Lauer Foundation |
| 🏅 Awards | Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1989) |
Wilhelm Lauer (* February 1, 1923 in Oberwesel; † July 24, 2007 in Wuppertal) was a German Geographer and climatologist. He was one of the pioneers of ecophysiological climate classification and geoecology. The Wilhelm Lauer Foundation at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Germany supports young researchers in his fields of research.
Scientific career[edit]
Wilhelm Lauer began studying geography in 1945, with the minors meteorology, botany, geology, history, ethnology and Latin at the University of Bonn. He received his doctorate in 1950 by Carl Troll in Bonn with the landscape-ecological thesis "Humid and arid seasons in Africa and South America and their relation to the vegetation belts". In 1955, he earned his habilitation at the University of Kiel with Oskar Schmieder. From 1956 to 1958 onwards he taught as a full professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, establishing and directing its Geographical department. During his time in Bonn, he established an interdisciplinary research program "Development Problems in Extratropical South America from a Historical, Geographical and Regional Political Perspective - Model Study Chile" (from 1971 financed by the Volkswagen Foundation). In 1958, Lauer became a full professor of geography at the University of Kiel. In 1961, he moved to the University of Marburg. In 1966 he followed the call to the chair of physical geography as successor to Carl Troll at the University of Bonn, which he held until his retirement in 1988. Lauer had a large number of students (including: Dieter Anhuf, Jörg Bendix, Wolfgang Eriksen, Jürgen Bär, Toni Breuer, Peter Frankenberg, Daud Rafiqpoor, etc.), several of whom held chairs at German universities. Wilhelm Lauer became emeritus professor in 1988, his successor was Matthias Winiger.
Research areas and expeditions[edit]
Wilhelm Lauer mainly worked on the climate and vegetation geography of the tropics.[1][2][3] The aim was to comparatively examine the climatic conditions of the vegetation belts in Africa and South America in order to define plausible criteria for the relationships between climate and plant formations.[4] This problem - in the tradition of Alexander von Humboldt - was to become a guiding principle for his further research and teaching activities and kept him busy far beyond his retirement. His work is a basis for understanding the effects of anthropogenic climate change on vegetation.
Lauer already conducted research expeditions early after the end of the second world war: After 1951, he traveled Spain and Spanish Morocco for research purposes, where he investigated forms of field cultivation of semi-arid regions.[5] As a visiting researcher at the Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas, he embarked on a year-long research expedition to El Salvador in 1953, where he studied the effects of anthropogenic influences on the natural landscape.[6][7] During his guest lectureship in Valdivia, he investigated the glacial landform ensemble of the southern Chilean lake region and initiated student work on the settlement and economic development of the area since the 18th century as well as on migration problems in the Great North of Chile.
In Bonn he concentrated on research in countries of Central and South America, Africa and the Near East, where he particularly explored the altitudinal belts of climate and vegetation of tropical and subtropical high mountains.
With the idea of a "comparative high mountain research", he followed the work of Troll and Humboldt thematically, and even spatially with the focus on the South American Andes. His work was mostly about analyzing the interrelation between the abiotic and the biotic environment as well as the impacts of human activity on climatic-ecological systems. Lauer methodically followed the 'classical' expedition concept with detailed terrain surveys and its cartographic documentation. Through this work he gained great international recognition as an expert on climatology and plant ecology of the tropics with all its complex patterns and interactions. In 1988 he developed together with Peter Frankenberg and Daud Rafiqpoor an ecophysiological climate classification. In 1996 Lauer contributed the climatological part for the first world map of plant diversity which he developed together with Wilhelm Barthlott.[8]
Lauer was one of the initiators and long-time coordinator of the Mexico Project (1964-1979) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It was a major multidisciplinary priority program of DFG, in size comparable to a DFG Collaborative Research Center today. Numerous key theses (dissertations and habilitations) were written in the scope of this program.
Wilhelm Lauer also pursued the idea of an ecologically oriented climate classification together with his students (Peter Frankenberg and M. Daud Rafiqpoor) by developing a new approach based on the calculation of potential landscape evaporation.[9] He completed this project in 2002 with the publication of the "Classification of the Earth's Climates based on the Ecophysiological Characteristics of Real Vegetation". This work is of great importance for the current understanding of the consequences of climate change.[10]
Beyond his scientific work, Lauer was Chairman of the Sub-Commission on Tropical High Mountains (1980-1984) of the International Geographical Union Commission on High Mountain Ecology, of which he was a member for many years from 1968. He was also founding member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Deutschen Lateinamerikaforschung (ADLAF), among many other memberships.
Wilhelm Lauer was a member of the German National Academy Leopoldina,[11] the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities,[12] and the Academy of Science and Literature in Mainz. He acted as Vice-President of the Mainz Academy from 1985 to 1995. The Mainz Academy was his second "academic home" also after his retirement. Here he initiated the long-term Academy project "Three-dimensional landscape structuring of the tropical high mountains[13]" within the framework of the Commission for Earth Sciences Research. The Geoecology Unit conducting this project was located at the Geographical Institute of the University of Bonn until 2001. From 1979 to 1985, Lauer established an interdisciplinary long-term project "Kallawaya Mountain People and Ecosystems in Bolivia" where he studied the interaction of people and environment in an Andean high mountain valley together with students and colleagues[14]. The work is documented in many volumes of the publication series "Abhandlungen der Mainzer Akademie".[15]
Wilhelm Lauer Foundation and the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz[edit]
Lauer established the Wilhelm Lauer Foundation at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz from his private assets through his bequest in 2005.[16] Since 2009, the foundation has (i) awarded the Wilhelm Lauer Prize every two years "for the promotion of young researchers in geoecological research" and (ii) organizes a specialist colloquium (Lauer Lecture) with internationally renowned speakers every two years at his place of work, the Institute of Geography at the University of Bonn. A celebratory colloquium is planned to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth in 2023.
Memberships and awards[edit]
- 1960 Founding member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung ADLAF
- 1963 Member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians
- 1966 Member of the Natural History Society of the Rhineland and Westphalia (since 1966, Chairman from 1968 to 1974, Honorary Member since 1974)
- 1968 Member and later Chairman of the "Commission on High Mountain Geoecology" of the "International Geographical Union (IGU)".
- 1969 Coordinator of the German Research Foundation's Mexico Project
- 1970 Full member of the Academy of Science and Literatur, Mainz
- 1976 Member of the Advisory Board of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
- 1981 Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- 1987 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- In 1989 he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his life's work.
- 2005 Establishment of the Wilhelm Lauer Foundation at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.
Selected literature[edit]
- W. Lauer: Humid and arid seasons in Africa and South America and their relation to the vegetation belts. Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen 9, pp. 15-98. 1955
- W. Lauer: On the Nature of the Tropics. Klimaöklogische Studien zum Inhalt und Abgrenzung eines irdischen Landschaftsgürtels. Abh. d. Akad. d. Wiss. u.d. Lit., Math.-nat. Kl, No. 3, Mainz 1975
- W. Lauer: Climatology. Westermann-Verlag, Brunswick 1995
- W. Lauer, P. Frankenberg: Klimaklassifikation der Erde; in: Geographische Rundschau 40, Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig 1988
- Barthlott, W., Lauer, W. & A. Placke (1996): Global distribution of species diversity in vascular plants: towards a world map of phytodiversity. Geography 50: 317-327, 1996
- W. Lauer & M.D. Rafiqpoor: The Climates of the Earth: A Classification Based on the Ecophysiological Characteristics of Real Vegetation; with 16 text tables, 3 supplements, table appendix, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2002.
Weblinks[edit]
- Literature by and about Wilhelm Lauer in the German National Library catalogue
- Works by and about Wilhelm Lauer in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
- Geographical Institute of the University of Bonn
- Lauer, Wilhelm. Hessische Biografie. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). (Stand: 1 April 2021)
- Memento on the Website of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz from 24th of August 2007 in the Internet Archive
- Bibliography on Google Scholar
- Bibliography on World Cat
References[edit]
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1959). "Klimatische und pflanzengeographische Grundzüge Zentralamerikas". Erdkunde. 13 (4). doi:10.3112/erdkunde.1959.04.07.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1951). "Hygrische Klimate und Vegetationszonen der Tropen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Ostafrikas". Erdkunde. 5 (4). doi:10.3112/erdkunde.1951.04.02.
- ↑ Hagedorn, Horst. "Auszug aus Jahrbuch 2007 - Obituary for Wilhelm Lauer 1.2.1923 – 24.7.2007" (PDF). Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1973). "The Altitudinal Belts of the Vegetation in the Central Mexican Highlands and Their Climatic Conditions". Arctic and Alpine Research (Vol.5, No.3 ed.). Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 5 (3): A99–A113. JSTOR 1550159. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (November 1, 1960). "Tipos de cultivo en la España semiárida, ilustrados con el ejemplo de La Mancha". Estudios Geográficos; Madrid. 21 (81): 509–528.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm. "LAS FORMAS DE LA VEGETACION DE EL SALVADOR" (PDF). Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1956). Vegetation, Landnutzung und Agrarpotential in El Salvador (Zentralamerika) (in German). OCLC 604613362. Retrieved 21 July 2022.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Global distribution of species diversity in vascular plants: Towards a world map of phytodiversity, auf erdkunde.uni-bonn.de
- ↑ Evapotranspiration In: klett.de. (PDF; 99 kB)
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1959). "Klimatische und pflanzengeographische Grundzüge Zentralamerikas". Erdkunde. 13 (4). doi:10.3112/erdkunde.1959.04.07.
- ↑ "Mitglieder". Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina (in Deutsch). Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ↑ "Verstorbene: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften". badw.de.
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (2003). Vergleichende Geoökologie der Hochgebirge der nördlichen (Mexiko) und südlichen (Bolivien) Randtropen sowie der inneren Tropen (Equador) zur Klimatologie und Ökophysiologie des Páramo de Papallacta (Ostkordillere Ecuador) unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der oberen Waldgrenze. Stuttgart. ISBN 978-3-515-08305-8. Retrieved 21 July 2022. Search this book on
- ↑ Lauer, Wilhelm (1982). "Zur Ökoklimatologie der Kallawaya-Region (Bolivien)". Erdkunde. 36 (4). doi:10.3112/erdkunde.1982.04.01.
- ↑ "Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Einzelveröff.)". Franz Steiner Verlag (in Deutsch). Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ↑ "Wilhelm Lauer Stiftung : Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz". www.adwmainz.de. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
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