Date: 12.04.2023

prof. Dr. Arnold Nauwerck

Former director of the Limnological Institute in Mondsee and a colleague and dear friend of many of us, prof. Dr. Arnold Nauwerck (1931 – 2023), passed away.

In February 2023 the limnologist, colleague, mentor and friend, Arnold Nauwerck, passed away.

Born in the Black Forest of south-west Germany he started his studies in Freiburg in the early 1950ties before moving to Sweden. His dissertation led to the seminal work entitled “Die Beziehungen zwischen Zooplankton und Phytoplankton im See Erken” (The relations between zooplankton and phytoplankton in Lake Erken – German with English summary) published in 1963 in Uppsala, which brought him international recognition. He received his doctoral degree in 1962 in Freiburg and his habilitation one year later in Uppsala where he was professor for limnology until 1970. During those years he was guest professor in Innsbruck, invited by his friend Roland Pechlaner, and went to a six-month expedition to Central Africa. He moved on to Canada, to the Centre of Inland Waters in Burlington, Ontario, studying plankton productivity in the Great Lakes. 1973 he returned to Sweden and worked as department head for air and water pollution surveillance in the provincial government of Norrbotten, until 1987. During those years he also worked as lecturer at the University of Innsbruck and at the Luleå University of Technology.  

He became nominated as director of the Institute for Limnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (consisting of the departments in Mondsee and in Lunz) in 1987 which he led for 10 years until retiring in 1997. He closely cooperated with his friend Gernot Bretschko, head of the department in Lunz. Scientifically he focused on trophic relationships between phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish and generally on the stability of aquatic ecosystems as well as the adaptation of aquatic organisms. Teaching was an important part of his activities and he was promoted to honorary professor at the University of Salzburg. His activities in developing and teaching the “International Post-Graduate Course in Limnology” led to many foreign collaborations, e.g. the Makerere University in Uganda, Egerton University in Kenia and Academia Sinica in Nanjing. He was a member of several committees such as the steering group forming the Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin and the scientific advisory board of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in České Budějovice. Furthermore, he was member of the editorial boards of the journals Aqua Fennica, Annales de Limnologie and Limnologica. His scientific legacy includes more than 100 publications of limnological content which has inspired and will inspire his following generations of limnologists.

Further reading: Schiemer, F. (2014): Eine kurze Geschichte der Limnologie in Österreich (A short history of limnology in Austria – German with English summary) Denisia 33: 33-59.  https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/DENISIA_0033_0033-0059.pdf

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