Martin Wikelski: Investigating migratory patterns of wildlife
National Geographic Explorer and ecologist Martin Wikelski researches global migratory patterns, focusing on conservation, detection of disasters, disease spread, & global change.
Martin Wikelski is director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior based in Radolfzell and Konstanz, Germany, and professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz.
He is currently investigating global migratory patterns in animals, with particular emphasis on conservation, detection of disasters, disease spread, and global change.
He is leading the ICARUS (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) initiative, aimed at installing the “Internet of Animals” and aided by a small-object tracking system at the International Space Station. He has authored more than 250 scientific publications.
Wikelski is also a member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
He received his Ph.D. at Bielefeld University in Germany and then did postdoc work at the University of Washington in Seattle and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Wikelski was assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1998 to 2000, and then assistant and associate professor at Princeton University from 2000 to 2008.