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Dr. Beat Wermelinger

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)
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Dr. Beat Wermelinger studied biology at the ETH Zurich and received his PhD on the influence of plant nutrition on the development of spider mites. After a post-doc at the University of California in Berkeley, he returned to the ETH and worked for several years on the modeling of plant-insect systems.

After moving to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), he became head of the forest entomology research group. For over 30 years, he worked on bark beetles and their natural enemies, mass propagation of caterpillars and introduced species. A second focus was on topics such as forest biodiversity, deadwood or the effect of ecological disturbances - such as storms or fire - on the long-term development of insect diversity. He retired in 2022 but still enjoys the fascinating world of insects.

His book on the diverse functions of forest insects, richly illustrated with his own pictures, was aimed not only at people professionally involved with the forest, but also at nature lovers generally. It was awarded the Prix Moulines by the Swiss Entomological Society and has also been translated into English.

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