Prof. em. Dr. Paul Schmid-Hempel

Paul Schmid-Hempel has been Full Professor of Experimental Ecology at ETH Zurich since October 1991.

Prof. Schmid-Hempel was born in Zurich; he earned his doctorate in biology with emphasis on zoology and ecology from the University of Zurich. He was a post-doctoral research fellow of the National Science Foundation and the Royal Society of London at the University of Oxford, England (under Professor J.R. Krebs FRS). He became a senior assistant at the University of Basel (with Professor S.C.Stearns). From 1988 to 1991 he was a START fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation and independent group leader. His work was awarded the National Latsis Prize in 1988. After a period as visiting professor at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, he was appointed to the ETH.

His research attention focuses on the evolution and ecology of host- parasite interaction. Questions of special interest are the evolution and maintenance of the virulence of parasites and immunity resistance of the host, as well as the role of the genetic variability for the resulting ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Field and laboratory experiments are indispensable instruments in this work, accompanied, however, by theoretical approaches. At the same time, molecular methods (microsatellites, sequencing) are used to understand the genetic population and/or phylogenic relationships.