Background
Richard Albert Vollenweider was born on June 27, 1922 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Richard Albert Vollenweider
Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
The University of Zurich where Richard Vollenweider received a diploma in biology in 1946 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951.
Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
The University of Zurich where Richard Vollenweider received a diploma in biology in 1946 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951.
(The volume is written in collaboration with J. F. Tailing...)
The volume is written in collaboration with J. F. Tailing and D. F. Westlake for the International Biological Programme by Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.
https://www.amazon.com/Methods-Measuring-Production-Environments-Handbook/dp/B000QDVNZW/?tag=2022091-20
1974
Richard Albert Vollenweider was born on June 27, 1922 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Richard Vollenweider grew up in Lucerne where he finished high school and obtained a teacher's diploma in 1942. He attended the University of Zurich where he earned a diploma in biology in 1946, and completed a Ph.D. in biology in 1951, with a thesis on "Experimental Studies on Phytoplankton Ecology."
Vollenweider was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from McGill University, Montreal in 1986. It was followed by two honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Uppsala University three years later and from the University of Ferrara five years later.
Richard Vollenweider devoted much of his career to teaching. He taught in undergraduate schools in Lucerne, Switzerland from 1949 to 1954, followed by two fellowships to study limnology. The first fellowship took him to the Italian Hydrobiological Institute in Palanza, Italy, from 1954 to 1955, and the second to the Swedish Research Council in Uppsala, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1956.
From 1957 to 1959, Vollenweider worked as a field expert in limnology and fisheries for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Department of Agriculture in Egypt. He then returned to the Italian Hydrobiological Institute to work as a research associate from 1959 to 1966, followed by a position as a water pollution consultant for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris from 1966 to 1968.
He served as a chief limnologist and head of the Fisheries Research Board for the Canadian Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW), Burlington, Ontario, from 1968 to 1970, followed by a position as chief of the National Water Research Institute Lakes Research Division from 1970 to 1973. Vollenweider's final professional position was as a senior scientist with the Canadian Centre of Inland Waters from 1973 to 1988, which he held concurrently with a position as professor of biology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1978 to 1988.
While head of the Fisheries Research Board laboratories at CCIW, Vollenweider administered a research staff of 140 scientists and technicians. In this capacity, he was responsible for organizing and developing the early research activities on the Laurentian Great Lakes and other limnological studies in Canada. CCIW created the position of senior scientist for Vollenweider to allow him to continue his own research as well as to serve as the chairperson of the Centre's Scientific Committee for Research Coordination.
Vollenweider studied the primary production of Swiss, Italian, Swedish and Egyptian lakes using oxygen techniques and radioactive carbon, and developed mathematical models for calculating integral photosynthesis. He also explored the relationship between primary production and absorption characteristics and the spectral correlation of underwater light over a broad range of lakes. This early line of research became the frame for later efforts to resolve the question about eutrophication. Further, he discovered the acidification process of lakes due to industrial ammonia pollution.
In addition to his research work in Canada, Vollenweider served as a consultant to many United Nations organizations and the governments of Italy, Argentina, Venezuela, Japan, and Ecuador. He was instrumental in helping these countries develop programs to deal with major water management issues and in supporting purification projects. Vollenweider also served as a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization for Venezuela from 1977 to 1980, Italy in 1977, Argentina in 1980, Ecuador in 1982, and Brazil and Mexico in 1983. He worked for the International Lake Environment Commission and the World Health Organization in 1985.
Richard Vollenweider was the first to recognize phosphorus as the primary element in lake production, a discovery that laid the foundation for the restoration of the Great Lakes and for eutrophication control models employed internationally.
His primary contribution to the study of limnology began at the theoretical stage when he designed a mathematical model for measuring the levels of phosphorus in the Great Lakes. This model determined the appropriate level of reduction of phosphorus necessary to stabilize the aquatic environments. His prior research, as well as that of others, concluded that the dumping of massive quantities of phosphorous had resulted in the destructive overgrowth of algae in these lakes. Vollenweider’s theory of maximum tolerable levels of phosphorus in the lakes became the accepted standard among scientists and extended to the political arena when it formed the basis of the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States. This recognition of the work of a single scientist within international law is an unusual distinction. Vollenweider’s experiment to reduce phosphorous in the Great Lakes, begun in 1972, has proved successful and has stimulated similar projects around the world.
The scientist published more than ninety scientific papers in current scientific and technical journals, two books, and authored or co-authored numerous other scientific and technical reports in the fields of aquatic primary production, algal nutrition, optical conditions in lakes, water chemistry, freshwater, and marine eutrophication, and modeling. In addition to several papers on these topics, the primary outcome from Vollenweider’s studies was the International Biological Programme (IBP) handbook on “Methods for Measuring Primary Production in the Aquatic Environment” of which he was the primary contributor.
Richard Vollenweider’s honors and awards include Premio Cervia/Ambiente in 1978, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and Naumann-Thienemann Medal.
In recognition of his scientific leadership and public involvement for the environmental safeguard of the Adriatic Sea from eutrophication and pollution, Vollenweider was awarded honorary citizenship of the City of Cesenatico, Italy. He was a frequent guest on Italian television regarding Adriatic pollution, and his activities were reported in many Italian daily newspapers.
The annual R. A. Vollenweider Lectureship in Aquatic Sciences was established in his honor by the National Water Research Institute upon his retirement in 1988 to commemorate his global contribution to the advancement of the aquatic sciences.
(The volume is written in collaboration with J. F. Tailing...)
1974Richard Vollenweider was a member of the Italian Association of Ecology, the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology, the International Society of Limnology, and the Royal Society of Canada.
Richard Albert Vollenweider married a woman named Roberta in 1965.
