World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Biology and Biochemistry

D-Index
86
Citations
23738
World Ranking
3012
National Ranking
64

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2005 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1989 - Member of Academia Europaea

Overview

Rüdiger Wehner is affiliated with the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Their research primarily focuses on several interconnected fields including Agricultural and Biological Sciences as well as Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology. In particular, Wehner's work spans subfields such as Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Social Psychology, and Plant Science.

Their research encompasses topics like Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior, Plant and Animal Studies, Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research, Animal and Plant Science Education, Animal Behavior and Reproduction, Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies, and Species Distribution and Climate Change.

Wehner has published extensively, with recent papers including:

  • The architecture of the desert ant's navigational toolkit (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), 2024, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Entomofaunistik (OEGEF)
  • On the 'cognitive map debate' in insect navigation, 2023, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
  • Channel Walks-a Naturalist's Approach of Experimentally Studying Ant Navigation in the Field, 2024, Resonance

Their collaborations include frequent co-authorship with Markus Knaden, Thierry Hoinville, Holk Cruse, Alberto Tinaut, and Johannes Stökl. Notably, Wehner has worked on joint publications with Markus Knaden, who also authored separate recent studies related to desert ants.

Wehner's work has appeared in notable scientific venues such as Österreichische Gesellschaft für Entomofaunistik (OEGEF), Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)), Resonance, and the Journal of Neurogenetics.

In addition to journal articles, Wehner has authored books published by Harvard University Press, including the title Desert Navigator (2020).

The academic career of Rüdiger Wehner has been recognized by honors such as being named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005 and a Member of Academia Europaea since 1989.

Best Publications

  • Visual navigation in insects: coupling of egocentric and geocentric information

    Rüdiger Wehner;Barbara Michel;Per Antonsen

  • Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks

    R. Wehner

  • Searching behaviour of desert ants, genusCataglyphis (Formicidae, Hymenoptera)

    Rüdiger Wehner;Mandyam V. Srinivasan

  • «Matched filters» ― neural models of the external world

    Rüdiger Wehner

  • Visual spatial memory in desert ants,Cataglyphis bicolor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

    R. Wehner;F. Räber

  • Idiosyncratic route-based memories in desert ants, Melophorus bagoti: how do they interact with path-integration vectors?

    Martin Kohler;Rüdiger Wehner

  • The significance of direct sunlight and polarized skylight in the ant’s celestial system of navigation

    Rüdiger Wehner;Martin Müller

  • Polarization vision--a uniform sensory capacity?

    Rüdiger Wehner

  • Visual landmarks and route following in desert ants

    T. S. Collett;E. Dillmann;A. Giger;R. Wehner

  • Path Integration Provides a Scaffold for Landmark Learning in Desert Ants

    Martin Müller;Rüdiger Wehner

  • Path integration in insects

    Rudiger Wehner;Mandyam Srinivasan

  • How the clear-sky angle of polarization pattern continues underneath clouds: full-sky measurements and implications for animal orientation

    István Pomozi;Gábor Horváth;Rüdiger Wehner

  • The ant’s celestial compass system: spectral and polarization channels

    R. Wehner

  • Do Insects Have Cognitive Maps

    R Wehner;R Menzel

  • Polarized-light navigation by insects.

    Rüdiger Wehner

  • The desert ant odometer: a stride integrator that accounts for stride length and walking speed.

    Matthias Wittlinger;Rüdiger Wehner;Harald Wolf

  • No need for a cognitive map: decentralized memory for insect navigation.

    Holk Cruse;Rüdiger Wehner;Rüdiger Wehner

  • Sequence learning by honeybees

    T.S. Collett;S.N. Fry;R. Wehner

  • The polarization-vision project: championing organismic biology

    R Wehner;K Schildberger;N Elsner

  • Pinpointing food sources: olfactory and anemotactic orientation in desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis.

    Harald Wolf;Rüdiger Wehner

Frequent Co-Authors

Wolfgang Rössler
Wolfgang Rössler University of Würzburg
Markus Knaden
Markus Knaden Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Rolf Pfeifer
Rolf Pfeifer University of Zurich
Thomas S. Collett
Thomas S. Collett University of Sussex
Bernhard Ronacher
Bernhard Ronacher Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Mandyam V. Srinivasan
Mandyam V. Srinivasan University of Queensland
Holk Cruse
Holk Cruse Bielefeld University
John R. B. Lighton
John R. B. Lighton University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Randolf Menzel
Randolf Menzel Freie Universität Berlin
Nanfang Yu
Nanfang Yu Columbia University

If you think any of the details on this page are incorrect, let us know.

Report an issue

We appreciate your kind effort to assist us to improve this page, it would be helpful providing us with as much detail as possible in the text box below:

Best Scientists Citing Rüdiger Wehner

Trending Scientists

Recently Published Articles