The Resume

(November 20, 1886-June 12, 1982)
Born in Vienna, Austria
Animal behaviorist
Demonstrated that fish and bees had color vision
Successfully interpreted how honeybees communicate through dancing
Co-recipient, with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen, of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (1973)

Why he might be annoying:

For about two decades he held the erroneous belief that bees performed a round dance to indicate a source of nectar and a tail-waggling dance to indicate a pollen source.
He advocated sterilizing the deaf and blind to keep them from reproducing.
The Nobel Prize awarded to him and his co-recipients was controversial, since many commentators felt animal behavior studies were not a contribution to medicine.

Why he might not be annoying:

He eventually realized that the round dance was used by bees to indicate that a food source was located nearby (less than 50-100 yards), while the waggle dance communicated the distance and direction for a food source farther away.
He wrote, ‘I discovered that miraculous worlds may reveal themselves to a patient observer where the casual passer-by sees nothing at all.’
He volunteered at a Red Cross hospital during World War I.
His research combating parasitic infections of bees was considered so important to agriculture that the Nazis let him continue to work despite his inability to prove that his ancestry was 100% Aryan (a requirement for academic posts in the Third Reich).
Before the Nazis decided he was too important to fire, they tired to dismiss him by charging him -- supreme irony moment coming up -- with cruelty to animals for having his students dissect earthworms.
He used his position to help Polish scientists who had been targeted for arrest by the Gestapo.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 20th Century Scientists
• Beekeepers
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 60]
• Eugenics Supporters
• I am from Vienna, Austria
• I Died in 1982 (Ranked: 95)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• Look at Me, I'm Using a Magnifying Glass
• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (Ranked: 1973)
• Profiles 37501-37750 (Ranked: 37565)
• Scientists

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 36.36% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying