Authorised form of name | Tinbergen; Nikolaas (1907 - 1988) |
Other forms of name | Niko |
Dates | 1907 - 1988 |
Nationality | Dutch |
Date of birth | 15/04/1907 |
Date of death | 21/12/1988 |
Occupation | Biologist |
Research field | Animal behaviour |
Ethology |
Zoology |
Human behaviour |
Autism |
Activity | Medals and prizes: Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) 1973 |
Membership category | Fellow |
Date of election | 25/03/1962 |
Age at election | 54 |
RSActivity | Lectures: Croonian 1972 |
Relationships | Son of Dirk Cornelis Tinbergen and his wife Jeannette van Eek.; Married Elisabeth 'Lies' Rutten (1932); Brother of Jan Tinbergen, nobel prize winning economist; Uncle of Joost Tinbergen who also worked as one of his researchers |
OtherInfo | Nikolaas 'Niko' Tinbergen, Dutch biologist, ornithologist and animal behaviourist, was born 15 April 1907 and died 21 December 1988. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology; the study of animal behaviour. In 1973 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organisation and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1962.
Tinbergen moved from Leiden to England in 1949 and taught at the University of Oxford where he was a fellow first at Merton College and later at Wolfson College. In 1951, he published 'The Study of Instinct', an influential book on animal behaviour. In the 1960s and 70s, he collaborated with filmmaker Hugh Falkus on a series of wildlife films, including The Riddle of the Rook (1972) and Signals for Survival (1969). He was appointed Professor of Animal Behaviour in 1966 and retired in 1974.
At Oxford Tinbergen built up 'The Animal Behaviour Research Group' which had a profound influence on the development of ethology round the world. In particular, his research focused on the adaptedness of behaviour; work on the herring gull he had initiated in the Netherlands developed into comparative studies of many gull species. The Group had a field base at Walney Island. Several of his graduate students went on to become prominent biologists including Richard Dawkins FRS, Marian Dawkins, Desmond Morris, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Bill Hamilton, John Krebs FRS, Mike Cullen and Tony Sinclair.
Tinbergen also applied his observational methods to the problems of autistic children. After retiring from Oxford University in 1974, he and his wife, Lies Tinbergen, collaborated on a study of childhood autism publishing 'Autistic Children - new hope for a cure' in 1983. |
Source | AssocMaterial: Catalogues NCUACS 27/3/9; NCUACS 79/8/98; NCUACS 163/6/08. Papers deposited in the Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford Obituaries: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1990 vol 36 pp 547-565, plate, by R A Hinde |
Code | NA1869 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNo | Title | Date |
EC/1962/24 | Tinbergen, Nikolaas: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
MS/924/2/12 | Notecards from Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer | c. 1967-1990 |
MS/924/2/1 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1967 | 1967 |
MS/924/2/6 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1972 | 1972 |
MS/924/2/2 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1968 | 1968 |
MS/924/1/3 | Photo negatives of Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Oxford Animal Behaviour Research Group by Lawrence Shaffer | 1968-1976 |
MS/924/2 | Correspondence and associated papers of Nikolaas and Lies Tinbergen to Lawrence and Beth Shaffer | 1967-1990 |
MS/924/1/1 | Photographs of Nikolaas Tinbergen by Lawrence Shaffer | 1970 |
MS/924/2/3 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1969 | 1969 |
MS/924/2/4 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1970 | 1970 |
MS/924/2/8 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1974 | 1974 |
IM/GA/WRS/9060 | Tinbergen, Nikolaas | nd |
MS/924/2/9 | Letters of Nikolaas and Lies Tinbergen to Lawrence and Beth Shaffer with associated papers 1975 | 1975 |
MS/924/2/10 | Letters of Nikolaas and Lies Tinbergen to Lawrence and Beth Shaffer with associated papers 1976 | 1976 |
MS/924/2/11 | Letters of Nikolaas and Lies Tinbergen to Lawrence and Beth Shaffer with associated papers 1977-1990 | 1977-1990 |
MS/924/1 | Photographic material relating to Nikolaas Tinbergben and the Oxford Animal Behaviour Research Group | c.1968-1990 |
MS/924/1/2 | Photographic slides of Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Oxford Animal Behaviour Research Group by Lawrence Shaffer | 1969-1974 |
MS/924/2/5 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1971 | 1971 |
MS/924/2/7 | Letters of Nikolaas Tinbergen to Lawrence Shaffer with associated papers 1973 | 1973 |
MS/924 | Correspondence and photographic material of Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Oxford Animal Behaviour Research Group, compiled by Lawrence Shaffer | 1967-1990 |