Thomas Eisner was a world authority on animal behavior, ecology, and evolution, and, together with his Cornell colleague Jerrold Meinwald, was one of the pioneers of chemical ecology, the discipline dealing with the chemical interactions of organisms.
14 Facts About Thomas Eisner
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Thomas Eisner was author or co-author of some 400 scientific articles and seven books.
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Thomas Eisner was born on June 25,1929, in Berlin, Germany.
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Thomas Eisner's father, Hans Eisner, was a chemist of Jewish origin, and a coworker of Fritz Haber at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Electrochemistry in Berlin; he later held a chair for chemistry at Cornell.
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Thomas Eisner became a naturalized American citizen, and applied to Cornell University as an undergraduate, but was rejected.
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Thomas Eisner married Maria Eisner, who was a member of his lab.
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Thomas Eisner served on the board of directors of the National Audubon Society, the National Scientific Council of the Nature Conservancy, and the World Resources Institute Council.
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Thomas Eisner was a past president of the American Society of Naturalists, and chairman of the Biology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Thomas Eisner played a key role in initiating the Congressional Fellow Program in Washington DC, and in efforts to preserve wilderness areas in Florida and Texas.
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Thomas Eisner was furthermore a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
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Thomas Eisner received numerous honors, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Harvard Centennial Medal, the 1994 National Medal of Science and the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science.
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Thomas Eisner held honorary degrees from universities in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, and was a foreign fellow of the Royal Society.
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Thomas Eisner was additionally a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina and Academia Europaea.
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In 2008, Eisner was awarded the John J Carty Award by the National Academy of Sciences.