Thomas Holstein

Talk Title: The Significance of Ethel Browne's research on Hydra for the organizer concept

Thomas Holstein is Professor for Molecular Evolution and Genomics at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) at the University of Heidelberg. His research area is the molecular evolution and development of animals with a focus on cnidarian stem cell biology, tissue regeneration, and pattern formation. 

Thomas Holstein studied biology at the University of Vienna and obtained his doctorate in 1972 under Rupert Riedl (Dr. phil.). He was a research assistant at the Universities of Zurich and Munich, where he received his habilitation-degree in biology (Dr. rer. nat. habil., 1991). He held professorships in cell and developmental biology at the universities of Frankfurt (1993 - 1997) and Darmstadt (1997 - 2004) before coming to Heidelberg in 2004, where he is Senior-Professor since 2023.

He was President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2015 - 2020) and Spokesperson of the SFB1324 on Mechanism and Functions of Wnt signaling (2017 - 2021), whose Vice-spokesperson he is since 2021.