Axel Meyer was born in 1960 in Molln. He studied at the universities of Marburg, Kiel, Miami, and Berkeley. After graduating, he worked as a postdoc with Allan C. Wilson at the University of California, Berkeley, in the department of biochemistry. In 1990 he became assistant professor at Stony Brook University, New York, in the department of ecology and evolution. There he was appointed associate professor in 1993. The University of Constance appointed him to the chair of zoology and evolutionary biology in 1997.

Axel Meyer is one of the most frequently quoted biologists of our time (mainly due to his research on the "accelerated" evolution of cichlids in Lake Victoria). He was able to show that the species groups developed in their manifold behavioural and morphological adaptations from different stem species. An important aspect of his research are molecular biological investigations that support the relationship of the various species. Axel Meyer has received a number of national and international awards for his scientific work, including the Ernst Mayr Award of Harvard University (1987) and the Academy Award of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2000). In 2009 he was admitted to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Publications (selection):

• Algenraspler, Schneckenknacker, Schuppenfresser: Axel Meyer über den evolutionären Erfolg der Buntbarsche [Audiobook], 2008
• Evolution ist überall. Gesammelte Kolumne "Quantensprung" des Handelsblattes, 2008

• Adams Apfel und Evas Erbe. Wie die Gene unser Leben bestimmen und warum Frauen anders sind als Männer, 2015

Website:

http://www.evolutionsbiologie.uni-konstanz.de/index.php?section=25