Rudi Loesel

I began as a biology and physical chemistry major at the University of Regensburg (Bavaria). After three years I participated in an exchange program that brought me to the University of Colorado at Boulder where I took an immediate interest in skiing, motor biking and invertebrate zoology, the last of which I am still pursuing as a career. Even though technically still an undergraduate, I was allowed to enroll in graduate courses. Combining two of my interests, I roamed the mountains and plains of Colorado with my Yamaha in search of freshwater bryozoans in lakes and ponds. After returning to Regensburg I took further interest in neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of arthropods and completed a diploma thesis on the internal clock of insects in the lab of Uwe Homberg. Being fascinated by chronobiology I stayed in the Homberg group even though the entire lab moved to Marburg. There I pursued a dissertation project in which I combined intracellular recordings and immunocytochemical stainings to further characterize the neuroarchitecture and physiology of the internal clock of the cockroach. After finishing my thesis I once again came to the United States to broaden my knowledge of the insect central nervous system as a postdoc in the group of Nicholas J. Strausfeld in Tucson, Arizona. Currently I am working on the development of extrinsic neurons of the 'Mushroom Body' of the cockroach. In a second project Nick and I are combining a palette of neuroanatomical staining methods to derive phylogenetic relationships between major classes of arthropods. Our study initiates a broad "taxonomic comparison" that uses both conventional and immunohistological methods for identifying specific brain characters that can be used for a phylogenetic analysis.

Please refer to my Curriculum Vitae for further information.