astronomy

Miguel Vences

Miguel Vences is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Miguel Vences rather than just read about it. In short: Professor Miguel Vences (born 24 April 1969 in Cologne) is a German herpetologist and evolutionary biologist. Much of his research is focused on the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar.

Key takeaways

Miguel Vences belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Miguel Vences to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Miguel Vences from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor Miguel Vences (born 24 April 1969 in Cologne) is a German herpetologist and evolutionary biologist. Much of his research is focused on the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar.

Life The son of Galician philosopher Sergio Vences Fernández (1936–2012), Vences attended the Schiller-Gymnasium Köln from 1979 to 1988, and graduated with the German Abitur. The following year he began to study Biology at the University of Cologne. There he met Frank Glaw, and as undergraduate students they undertook their first excursions to Madagascar. After completing the Vordiplom in 1993, Vences transferred to the University of Bonn and the Museum König, where he completed his Diplom studies. Vences continued his studies there as a PhD student under the supervision of Wolfgang Böhme until 2000. His thesis was on the evolutionary history of true frogs (Ranoidea) and related families in Madagascar. Thereafter, he worked for one year at the National Museum of Natural History of France in Paris, before returning to Germany in 2001 to work at the University of Konstanz. In 2002 he worked at the University of Amsterdam and the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam as assistant professor and Leader of the Vertebrate section. In 2005 he moved to the Braunschweig University of Technology as a professor of evolutionary biology, where he works to this day. In 2013 he was elected into the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and in 2018 to the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (the German National Academy of Sciences).

Scientific work

The focus of Vences' work is on the amphibians and reptiles of Madagascar. He works together with Frank Glaw on many taxonomic species descriptions; together they have described over 200 new species of frogs, and numerous new species of snakes, chameleons, and other reptiles. In 1992, they produced a field guide to the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar. In 1994 they produced a second edition of this guide, including the descriptions of numerous new taxa, and a significantly expanded reptile section. In 2007, a third edition was produced, which did not describe any new species, but included colour photographs and short text descriptions of over 100 unnamed species. In recent years, Vences has been coauthor on several publications over a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to biogeography, amphibian disease and amphibian-associated microbiomes, population genetics, evolution and speciation, and taxonomy.

Eponyms Four species have been named after Vences:

Calumma vencesi – Vences' chameleon Eimeria vencesi Rhabdias vencesi Hydrothelphusa vencesi

References

External links Miguel Vences' homepage Evolutionary Biology department of the Zoological Institute of the Braunschweig University of Technology

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Miguel Vences

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Miguel Vences claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Miguel Vences before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Miguel Vences ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Miguel Vences

In research: Miguel Vences appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Miguel Vences in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Miguel Vences is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1969 births, Academic staff of TU Braunschweig, Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Miguel Vences outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Miguel Vences in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Miguel Vences means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Miguel Vences out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Miguel Vences in simple terms?

Professor Miguel Vences (born 24 April 1969 in Cologne) is a German herpetologist and evolutionary biologist. Much of his research is focused on the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar.

Why does Miguel Vences matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Miguel Vences?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Miguel Vences.