Ulrich Kutschera

Education and career

Kutschera completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, receiving a MS in zoology and evolutionary biology. In 1985, he received a doctorate degree in plant physiology. His thesis (summa cum laude) was awarded the Pfizer Research Award (Germany) in 1986.

Between 1985 and 1988, Kutschera was the recipient of a Humboldt-fellowship (Feodor Lynen Program). He carried out his post-doctoral work at Stanford University (Department of Biology; Carnegie Institution for Science) and at Michigan State University (MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory). Kutschera was then employed at the University of Bonn as a research associate and thereafter as a lecturer. He began his professional career in 1993 at the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry (University of Kassel) as Full Professor and Head of a Department. In 2007, he joined the Research Group of Z.-Y. Wang in Stanford, California (USA), as a Visiting Scientist (experimental analysis of hormone action in plants, etc.).

Kutschera is an elected member of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany and the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). In 2002, he became head of the Division of Evolutionary Biology, at the Association of German Biologists (VBiO) and from 2004 to 2007 was vice president. In 2013, Kutschera was elected corresponding member of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), and, since 2015, he is a Scientific Advisor for the Agriculture-Food-Health Res. Comp. I-Cultiver Inc. based in Livermore, California, USA, and the Systems Biology Group in Palo Alto, California, USA.

Scientific work

Kutschera has studied the mechanism of phytohormone-mediated cell expansion (epidermal growth-control theory of stem elongation; protein secretion hypothesis of auxin action; epiphytic methylobacteria as phytosymbionts in living-fossil plants). His contributions to the taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of aquatic annelids (and methylobacteria) includes, for example, the discovery/description of the Golden Gate leech; he also revised the systematics of medicinal leeches and published a theory on the evolution of parental care in the Hirudinea.

Kutschera has written about evolution and creationism from historical and philosophical perspectives and the modern theory of biological evolution as an expanded synthesis, as well as the Synade-model of macroevolution. In 2008, Kutschera described the strict separation of scientific facts and theories from religious dogma in Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species (1859) as Darwin's philosophical imperative.

Evolution versus intelligent design

In 2003, Kutschera said,

"Anti-evolutionism in German-speaking countries has already infiltrated some academic circles."

In 2007, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in San Francisco, US, when speaking about the spread of creationism in Europe, Kutschera said,

"The more one argues against this creationist propaganda...the less you can convince people who are not scientists...[we should] no longer talk about Darwinism, but use the term Evolutionary Biology, which is a scientific discipline, like Physiology."

In 2015, at the AAAS-meeting in San Jose, US, Kutschera argued that

"The topic of evolution in Germany is in the hands of a small but powerful religious sect. But they are full of creationist nonsense."

As a former member of the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs) and Scientific Advisor of the German branch of the Richard Dawkins Foundation (RDF-D), Kutschera has defended biological evolution and humanistic naturalism against pseudoscientific claims.

Publications

Kutschera has published ca. 270 scientific papers, many with co-authors from the US, such as Karl J. Niklas, Winslow R. Briggs, and David A. Weisblat, and ten books (in German). Since 2010, he is the producer of a series of science videos for biology students, inclusive of the piano background music, see the Album Review of G. Lemco on KZSU-Stanford Radio

His academic textbook, Evolutionsbiologie(2015) has been translated into Russian and Portuguese. Kutschera's book Tatsache Evolution was a best-seller during the Year of Darwin 2009 (in Germany) and, like his monograph Das Gender-Paradoxon (2016), the subject of controversial reports and discussions.