Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Gigon

Andreas Gigon currently heads the research group Plant Ecology and Conservation Biology Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ) at ETH Zurich. Habilitation 1978, Professor (Titularprofessor) since 1985.

Andreas Gigon was born on May 6, 1942 and is a citizen of Basel and Goumois (Jura, Switzerland). He grew up in the French, the Italian, and the German speaking parts of Switzerland. He studied Biology at the Department of Natural Sciences at the ETH Zurich and, in winter 1968-69, physiological plant ecology at the University of Sheffield. He completed his doctorate at ETH Zurich in 1971. His dissertation on the ecology of alpine grasslands on acidic and limestone soils was awarded the ETH medal. From 1971 to 1972 he studied CO2-gas exchange, water relations and convergence of plants in mediterranean type ecosystems in California, at Stanford University, where he was also lecturer in soil-plant relationships. In 1978 he completed the habilitation requirements at the ETH Zurich on the subject of plant ecology and became very involved in teaching. From 1986 to 1988, together with colleagues, he initiated a new curriculum in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich.

His research group emphasizes the study of ecological stability, understanding the structure of plant communities, and elaborating measures for the maintenance of rare ecosystems and of plant biodiversity. Since 1993 he has headed a project in which a new conservation instrument has been developed, the "Blue Lists of the endangered animal and plant species that have been successfully promoted".

He is on the board of several scientific associations and journals and has published extensively on the above mentioned subjects.