Dittmar Graf was born in 1955 in Melbach. After graduating from high school in Friedberg/Hessen he studied biology and geography at Justus Liebig University in Giessen. In 1989 he received his PhD with a thesis on biology didactics. He was research assistant at the universities of Giessen and Braunschweig. From 1989 to 1994 Graf served as deputy state chairman for Hesse of the "Verband Biologie, Biowissenschaften und Biomedizin" (VBIO - German Life Sciences Association), and until 2001 as state chairman. Since 1992 he has been co-editor of the education journal "Der mathematische und naturwissenschaftlich Unterricht" ("The teaching of mathematics and science").

From 1992 to 2001 he was student advisor at the Institute for Biology Teaching at the University of Giessen. In 2001 Graf was appointed to the chair of biology and didactics of biology at the University of Dortmund. From 2007 to 2009 he was a member of the VBIO's directorate for the didactics of biology division. Since 2008 he has been a member of the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP - Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences). In 2012 he was appointed to Justus Liebig University in Giessen and has held the chair of biology didactics since then. His special interest is in questions of evolutionary didactics. He is involved in the "Evokids" project.

Publications (selection):

• Biologiedidaktik von A bis Z – Wörterbuch mit 1000 Begriffen. Wiebelsheim: Quelle & Meyer 2003 (with Karl-Heinz Berck).
• Biologiedidaktik: Grundlagen und Methoden. Wiebelsheim: Quelle & Meyer, 2010. 4th ed. (with Karl-Heinz Berck).
• Evolutionstheorie - Akzeptanz und Vermittlung im europäischen Vergleich. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2011 (ed.).
• Evolutionsbiologie - Moderne Themen für den Unterricht. - Heidelberg: Spektrum 2011 (ed., with Daniel Dreesmann and Klaudia Witte).
• Experimente für den Biologieunterricht: Erkenntnisgewinnung und kompetenzorientierte Vermittlung biologischer Inhalte. München: Oldenbourg, 2013 (ed.).
• Anders heilen? Wo die Alternativmedizin irrt. Aschaffenburg: Alibri 2015 (ed., with Christoph Lammers).
• Evolution in der Grundschule. Materialien für den Unterricht. – Oberwesel, Giessen 2016 (ed., with Michael Schmidt-Salomon).