1903-1989

Austrian Zoologist and Ethologist

Konrad Lorenz is most well-known as a founder of the field known as ethology, and for his research into animal behavior. As the study of animal behavior became more extensive after the turn of the century, Lorenz and other scientists helped to establish ethology as the systematic study of the function and evolution of behavior. His behavioral research focused mainly on social structure and instinctive behaviors, including imprinting, in which newly hatched birds become attached to the first moving thing they see.

Lorenz was born in Vienna, Austria, on November 7, 1903, as the second of two sons to a well-known orthopedic surgeon and his wife. As a youngster, Lorenz studied at a private elementary school and at one of the city's finest secondary schools. His interests in animal behavior began and flourished at his family's summer home in Altenburg, Austria...