Lorenz, Konrad Zacharias (1903–1989)

Austrian ethologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973 with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch for their work on animal behaviour patterns. He studied the relationship between instinct and behaviour, particularly in birds, and described the phenomenon of imprinting in 1935. His books include King Solomon's Ring (1952) on animal behaviour, and On Aggression (1966) on human behaviour.

Lorenz was born in Vienna and studied medicine there and in the USA at Columbia University. In 1940 he was appointed professor of general psychology at the Albertus University in Königsberg, Germany. Lorenz sympathized with Nazi views on eugenics, and in 1938 applied to join the Nazi party. From 1942 to 1944 he was a physician in the German army, and then spent four years in the USSR as a prisoner of war. Returning to Austria, he successively headed various research institutes.

Together, Lorenz and Tinbergen discovered how birds of prey are recognized by other birds. All birds of prey have short necks, and the sight of any bird – or even a dummy bird – with a short neck causes other birds to fly away.