Optimist by disposition
Rock star or professional footballer – for the 15-year-old Norbert Sachser, at the end of the 1960s, these seemed to be attractive options for a career. His idols were Eric Clapton and Günter Netzer, but also – which may have been an early indicator of his later career – the famous behavioural biologist Konrad Lorenz. Today, around half a century later, Norbert Sachser is Senior Professor of Behavioural Biology at the University of Münster, enjoying a high reputation in international academic circles. He has recently become more well-known to the general public since the publication of his book “The Human in the Animal”, which immediately entered the German bestseller lists when it appeared in 2018.
On the Münster University Facebook site, Sachser was once described as the “guinea pig expert”. In typical fashion, the 66-year-old takes it in good humour. In fact, he has indeed devoted a large part of his life as a researcher to the little rodents. In studies involving different species of cavia (wild guinea pigs), he showed how elaborate the social behaviour displayed by these animals is. With his team he also discovered a never-before described species of guinea pig, native to Bolivia, which is today known officially as the Muenster yellow-toothed cavy. But the publicity surrounding the guinea pigs has meant that Sachser’s research involving around 30 species of other animals has often been forgotten. His particular interests are the interaction between genes, environment and behaviour, as well as topics such as individualisation, stress and well-being in animals.
The Nobel Prizes, the establishment of the Institute in Bielefeld – suddenly it was possible to study behavioural biology. We had top-class conditions at the new Institute. There was an atmosphere of excitement and optimism for the future.”
Norbert Sachser grew up in the countryside, in the town of Enger in eastern Westphalia, a few kilometres north of Bielefeld. Dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens and hamsters were his friends and companions. In 1974, after passing his Abitur and backpacking around Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, he already knew that being a footballer or a rock star were no longer career options. One year before, three important behavioural scientists – Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch and Nikolaas Tinbergen – had been joint recipients of the Nobel Prize. The first Chair of Behavioural Biology had just been instituted at the University of Bielefeld, headed by Norbert Sachser’s later doctoral supervisor, Prof. Klaus Immelmann. “The Nobel Prizes, the establishment of the Institute in Bielefeld – suddenly it was possible to study behavioural biology. We had top-class conditions at the new Institute. There was an atmosphere of excitement and optimism for the future,” Sachser reminisces.
After being awarded his PhD in Bielefeld, Sachser took up a post as a research associate at the University of Bayreuth, where he wrote his habilitation. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Zoology at the University of Münster, a position which later evolved into a Professorship of Behavioural Biology. In his early days in Münster he often used to sleep on an airbed, between sacks of cement, in what was then the dilapidated Institute building in Badestraße. This meant he could welcome the workers engaged on the refurbishment when they arrived early in the morning.
Initially, his professorship had just one post for a research associate, which was shared by two PhD students. One of them was Sylvia Kaiser, who is likewise a professor at Münster University today. A milestone on the way to becoming a centre of behavioural biology with an international profile was organising the “First European Conference on Behavioural Biology”, which was held in Münster in 2002, with around 600 participants, and which started a new tradition of such conferences in Europe.
“He is an outstanding scientist, who has the gift of passing on his enthusiasm to others and who has a very good feeling for people. Just the kind of PhD supervisor you hope for. On the one hand he allowed us a lot of freedom, and on the other he assumed responsibility at decisive moments,” is how Dr. Niklas Kästner, a former PhD student and founder of the online magazine “ETHOlogisch – Verhalten verstehen” (“ETHOlogical – Understanding behaviour”) describes his doctoral supervisor Norbert Sachser. Ten former graduates themselves hold professorships in Germany and abroad, with many more passing on their knowledge to a wider public, for example as journalists or curators in museums and zoos. They are all important multipliers who continue to carry out research or pass on insights gained from research.
What does a day in the working life of a senior professor look like? “Earlier I was discussing a manuscript with two female colleagues on the subject of personality in animals. Yesterday evening there was the assessment of our application for a prolongation of our Transregio Collaborative Research Centre 212. After that I had a conversation with my editor for my next popular science book.” The words are barely out of Sachser’s mouth when the phone rings. Rector Johannes Wessels is calling about that application for prolongation.
So Norbert Sachser certainly has enough to keep him busy. As a senior professor he has more consultative work than before, for example as the Chairman of the Münster Alliance for Science and as a member of the Advisory Board in the Life Sciences Faculty at the University of Vienna. And although it is sometimes difficult to balance all these things, he now has more time for things which sometimes used to be neglected: meeting friends, reading, listening to music, enjoying art and culture with his wife and, after the pandemic, travelling again to keep up contacts with people from many different countries.
Within the field of biology, behavioural research always used to have the image of a ‘soft science’. Colleagues from other disciplines treated us patronisingly, but I took it in good humour and saw it as a spur to my work."
The research undertaken by Norbert Sachser and his team has contributed to a decisive change in attitudes towards animals. Whereas people in the 1970s said that animals couldn’t think, the ability to do so is now proven for many species of animals. Also, it is now accepted that animals’ emotions can be investigated on a sound scientific basis. Parallel to this development, the image of behavioural biology has also changed. “Within the field of biology, behavioural research always used to have the image of a ‘soft science’. Colleagues from other disciplines treated us patronisingly, but I took it in good humour and saw it as a spur to my work,” says Sachser, who – perhaps in view of what the subject of behavioural biology used to have to contend with – has always emphasised just how important it is to work in accordance with sound scientific principles.
Norbert Sachser describes himself as an “optimist by genetic disposition”. Asked what he would wish for for the future, his list is: “Good health and to continue to enjoy the exciting life that my wife and I have led these past decades. Science should definitely be a part of that. And I want to make my contribution to people treating animals and nature with more respect.”
Christina Hoppenbrock
Translated from the German by Ken Ashton
This article was first published in the University newspaper wissen|leben No. 4, 16 June 2021.