Thursday 22 April 2010 Openingsceremony, 12.15- 13.00 Auditorium

Always been curious about the strange habits in the animal kingdom?

On Thursday Kees Moeliker will present to us his improbable research, research that makes you laugh and then think!

Kees hopes to spur your curiosity, and to raise the question: How do you decide what's important and what's not, and what's real and what's not - in science and everywhere else?

Definitely worth listening to!

Kees Moeliker was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1960. As a schoolboy he wandered in the fields and marshes surrounding the city, looking for birds.

He studied biology and geography, and - as a student - got deeply involved in the population-ecology study of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) conducted by his mentor, friend and neighbor Kees Heij. After being an assistant-butcher, an English teacher in Istanbul, a nature guide in Costa Rica and a biology teacher at several high schools, he was appointed education officer at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam in 1989. He still works at the museum, now as chief-curator and head of communications

Moeliker always has a keen eye for strange bird behaviour. In 1995 he was the first to witness a case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. In 2003, his publication about this observation earned him the Ig Nobel biology prize, the award that honors ‘research that first makes you laugh, and then makes you think'. Since then he is know as ‘the duck guy' and has joined the editorial board of the Annals of Improbable Research. He also appeared annually on stage at the Ig Nobel prize ceremony and is a regular performer during the annual Ig Nobel Tour of the UK. In May 2006 he was appointed European Bureau Chief of Improbable Research, the US-based organization that publishes the bi-monthly Annals of Improbable Research, produces the website improbable.com and organizes the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony.

Watch You Tube video interview  Kees Moeiliker (in Dutch)