1. LON-CAPA Logo
  2. Help
  3. Log In
 
PALAEOBOTANICAL RESEARCH   GROUP
 
UNIVERSITY  MÜNSTER
 THE  MÜNSTER  PALAEOBOTANY  GROUP

The Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik (Palaeobotanical Research Unit) in Münster was founded in 1968 by Prof. Dr. Winfried Remy. Until his death in 1995 he remained active in research and and teaching. Since 1991 Prof. Dr. Hans Kerp is the leader of this research group.
 
Prof. Dr. Hans Kerp (11 September 1954, Venlo, The Netherlands) studied geology from 1972 to 1980 at the University Utrecht (The Netherlands). His principal research subjects were stratigraphy and palaeobotany with sedimentology and history of science as additional research subjects. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1986 for a thesis on the genus Callipteris in the European Rotliegend. From 1980 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1991 he was appointed at the Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology in Utrecht, first as a research assistant and since 1987 as a lecturer. In 1989 and 1990 he was appointed as research associate in the Department of Geology of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A. Since September 1991 he is professor of palaeobotany at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. His research concentrates on Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic floras, and focuses on the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of fossil plants, palaeophytogeography and fossil cuticles. He is editor of two journals: Albertiana, the newsletter of the International Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy, and the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. In addition, he is is a member of the editorial boards of Palaeontographica Abteilung B - Phytopaläontologie, the journal  Geolines of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and "Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geosciences". In 1995 he was elected as chairman of the German "Arbeitskreis für Paläobotanik und Palynologie".

 

Hagen Hass (24 November 1947, Bartensleben, Germany) is appointed as a technician in a DFG-funded research project on "growth forms of Early Devonian land plants - their development and functional morphology". This project is carried out in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Volker Mosbrugger (Tübingen) and started in February 1996.
 

Hans Kerp, Véronique Daviero and Hagen Hass at Windyfield near Rhynie (March 1999)
 
Dr. Michael Krings (19 November 1968, Munich, Germany) studied biology, history, music and philosophy at the University  Münster between 1988 bis 1994. He finished his studies in the summer of 1994 with the examination that qualified him as a highschool teacher for biology and history.  Between 1994 and 1998 he was appointed as research associate at the Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik in a research project on Late Carboniferous cuticles that was funded by the German Science Foundation. In February 1998 Michael obtained his Ph.D. with a thesis entitled "Kutikularanalytische Untersuchungen  an Pteridospermen aus dem Stefan (Oberkarbon) von Blanzy-Montceau (Zentralmassiv, Frankreich)".  He currently works as a Feodor-Lynen stipendiate of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the  University of Kansas (Lawrence, USA) in the reserach group of Prof. Dr. Thomas N. Taylor.  Michael will return to Münster in April 2000.

Sunia Lausberg (7 September 1969, Hamburg, Germany) studied geology at the University Münster from 1989 to 1997 and her M.Sc. dealt with the Late Permian flora from Midtkap, Frederick E. Hyde-Fjord, north Greenland. Together with Prof. Dr. Robert H. Wagner (Cordoba, Spain) and Dr. Serge V. Naugolnykh (Moscow, Russia) she currently finishes a manuscript on this flora. Sunia now works on het Ph.D. thesis on the Rotliegend hinterland floras of the Saar-Nahe Basin, a research project funded by the DFG.

Anke Grewing (6 December 1971, Georgsmarienhütte, Germany) studied geology at the Univeristy Münster and obtained her M.Sc. in 1997. For her M.Sc. thesis she mapped in Dickson Land (Spitzbergen) and also carried out palynological analyses of  a series of Devonian and Carboniferous samples from this area. Anke currently works on her Ph.D. research project on the vegetation dynamics in the Stephanian of western Europe. This project is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and concentrates on the French Massif Central and the Saar-Nahe Basin.

Wolfgang Peters-Kottig (7 August 1972, Dülmen, Germany) studied geology at the University Münster between 1993 and 1999. His M.Sc. dealt with applied and environmental geology. In  October 1999 he started his Ph.D. research on carbon isotope studies of terrestrial organic material in the light of the climatic and palaeobotanical evolution during the Late Palaeozoic. This project which is a cooperation of Prof. Dr. Harald Strauß (Historical and Regional Geology) and Prof. Dr. Hans Kerp (Palaeobotany) is funded by the German Science Foundation.

Dr. Véronique Daviero (1 July 1970, Briançon, France), studied in Montpellier (France) where she also obtained her Ph.D. in 1998. From September 1998 to September 1999 she was working as a post-doc at the Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik.  She had a  Marie Curie Stipend  (TMR) of the European Community and worked  on  the computer modelling of Early Devonian Rhynie Chert plants. These computer simulations are carried out in cooperation with CIRAD, Montpellier. In September 1999 Véronique started in a permanent research and teaching position in Lyon.

Wolfgang Brock, Tobias Dankbar, Christian Dechert and Susanne Knoblauch are currently appointed as teaching assistents in the Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik.

© Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster 
March 2000