Fritz Vollrath

Research Interests

Diversity, Ecology, Life History and Evolution of Spiders and their Webs.
Material, Mechanics and Evolution of Silks.
Bio-Nano-Materials : Structure-Properties-Function Relationships
Animal Decisions and Energy Budgets
Elephant and Spider Behaviour.

External websites

• Oxford Silk Group
• Oxford Tracking

Additional Information

PhD in Freiburg, Faculty Positions in Basel, Aarhus, Oxford; Extensive Fieldwork in Panama, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Kenya; Close research collaborations with e.g. Fudan University, Princeton University, ETH-Zürich; Trustee of Save the Elephants

Contacts

Selected Publications

• 2007 Holland C, Terry EA, Porter D, Vollrath F Natural and Unnatural Silks. Polymer 48, 3388-3392
• 2006 Dicko C, Kenney J, Vollrath F Beta-Silks: Enhancing and controlling aggregation. pp 17-53 in eds A Kajava, J Squire, D Parry: Fibrous Proteins: Amyloids, Prions and b- proteins. Advances in Protein Chemistry (vol. 72)
• 2006 Vollrath F, Porter D -Spider silk as archetypal protein elastomer. Softmatter 2;377-385
• 2006 Holland C, Terry EA, Porter D, Vollrath F Rheological characterisation of native spider and silkworm dope. Nature Materials 5, 870-874
• 2006 Wall J, Douglas-Hamilton I, Vollrath F, Elephants avoid costly mountaineering Current Biology 16; 527-529