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Uwe Kils (b. July 10, 1951) is a German marine biologist specializing in Antarctic biology. Working under marine biologist and oceanographer Gotthilf Hempel at the Leibniz Institute for Oceanography, now the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, in May 1979, Kils obtained his doctorate in marine biology focusing on the behaviour and physiology of krill in Antarctica graduating summa cum laude and opus eximium. His dissertation was translated and published in English as a book. In 1987 he received Habilitations and venia legendi in Marine Biology and Fisheries Biology from the University of Kiel under Gotthilf Hempel and Walter Nellen.

Career

His work led to the development of instruments for in situ observation of underwater fauna, including the ecoSCOPE and the first software for full speed video processing. Later work at Kiel included the study of predator-prey interactions of juvenile herring and plankton, for which a floating laboratory was built called ATOLL The ATOLL was composed of three curved fiberglass elements, each 25 m long and having a draught of only 38 cm. For towing, the elements could be assembled in a long S-shape; in operation, the elements would form a horseshoe shape surrounding 150 m² water surface and was developed and deployed in the Bay of Kiel. Work there led to Kils' involvement in an initiative to repopulate the Flensburg Fjord with herring as part of the project Saubere Ostsee ("Clean Baltic"). His work was honored by the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize.

Subsequently, Kils was invited by the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University, where he became a tenured associate professor in 1994 helping to set up a "Virtual Institute for Marine Sciences" at Tuckerton with online underwater cameras via fibre optic cables. He programmed the virtual microscope, worked with glasseels at the project Longterm Ecological Observatory, and created the eelBASE web server. He recently retired from a position as associate professor of marine science at Rutgers University. He was able to visit the US with a EB-1 visa.

Some photos by Kils

• Small lecture room on board with international students in a course on aquaculture technology
• In situ image taken with an ecoSCOPE. A green spit ball is visible in the lower right of the image and a green fecal string in the lower left.
• Slow-motion macrophotography video (50%) of juvenile Atlantic herring (38 mm) feeding on copepods.
• Glasseel totally transparent - the video is so sharp that you can see when the glasseel flips over a sand grain
• View from underwater window, the first fishcam in the world ATOLL Lab
• Living leptocephalus, looking like glass, never imaged before
• Schooling herrings
• Salmon fry hatching - the larva has grown around the remains of the yolk - visible are the arteries spinning around the yolk and little oildrops, also the gut, the spine, the main caudal blood vessel, the bladder and the arcs of the gills

Selected publications

• Kils, U.: "Swimming Behavior, Swimming Performance, and Energy Balance of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba", translation of Ph.D. thesis in German from 1979, College Station, Texas; 1981. Available free via Wikisource
• Kils, U., Klages, N. (1979) "Der Krill" Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau, 10: 397-402.
• Kils, U. (1987) "Verhaltensphysiologische Untersuchungen an pelagischen Schwärmen - Schwarmbildung als Strategie zur Orientierung in Umwelt-Gradienten. Bedeutung der Schwarmbildung in der Aquakultur", (Habilitation), Universität Kiel, Ber Inst Meereskunde, Kiel 163: 1-168.
• Kils, U.
• Kils, U. (1983) Swimming and feeding of Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba - some outstanding energetics and dynamics - some unique morphological details. In: Berichte zur Polarforschung, Alfred-Wegener-Institut fuer Polarforschung, Sonderheft 4 (1983). On the biology of Krill Euphausia superba, Proceedings of the Seminar and Report of Krill Ecology Group, ed. S. B. Schnack, 130 - 155
• Kils, U., Marschall, P. (1995) "Der Krill, wie er schwimmt und frisst - neue Einsichten mit neuen Methoden" (The Antarctic krill - feeding and swimming performances - new insights with new methods). In: Hempel, I., Hempel, G., Biologie der Polarmeere - Erlebnisse und Ergebnisse. Gustav Fischer Jena - Stuttgart - New York, 201 - 207
• Kils, U. (2000) Images: Krill Stuff. ed. Kayser j., Science 290 (5496): Net watch online publication ecoSCOPE.com - enhanced IT tools and translation of Kils, U., Marschall, P. 1995.
• Kils, U., (2006) "So frisst der Krill" How krill feeds. In: Hempel, G., Hempel, I., Schiel, S., Faszination Meeresforschung, Ein oekologisches Lesebuch. Hauschild Bremen, 112-115.

References

1. Kils, U (1992) "The ecoSCOPE and dynIMAGE: Microscale Tools for in situ Studies of Predator Prey Interactions" Arch Hydrobiol Beih 36: 83-96]
2. Kils, U.: The ATOLL Laboratory and other Instruments Developed at Kiel; U.S. GLOBEC NEWS Technology Forum Number 8: 6-9.
3. FishWatcher Record: Clupea harengus FishBase. Modified 5 June 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2009.
4. Template:De icon List of winners of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 1978 - 2003, from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ("German Research Society").
5. "Coastal Predictive Skill Experiments at LEO".
6. The virtual microscope
7. eelBASE
8. Members of the Graduate Faculty, 2003–2005 Rutgers University. Retrieved 1 December 2009.

External links

• Publication list
• Short CV

Template:Fishery personality topics

• 1951 births
• Living people
• German scientists
• Oceanographers
• Fisheries science