Philipp Wagner

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Philipp Rüdiger Wagner (born 29 November 1973) is a German biologist and herpetologist. He was trained at the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn and received his doctorate there, as well as at the University of Bonn. After a postdoctoral position at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, United States, he returned to the Museum Koenig for another postdoctoral appointment. Until mid-2017, he was head of the Upper Franconia district office and the UIZ Lindenhof Natural History Museum of the Landesbund für Vogelschutz in Bayern (LBV) near Bayreuth. Since July 2017, he has served as curator for research and species conservation at the Allwetterzoo Münster.

Biography

Early life and education Wagner graduated from the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium in Monheim am Rhein with a focus on mathematics and natural sciences and completed his alternative civilian service at the Urdenbacher Kämpe Biological Station in Monheim. From 1995 to 2004, he studied biology at the University of Bonn, graduating with a diploma. His diploma thesis dealt with the systematics and zoogeography of the reptile fauna of the Kakamega Forest National Reserve in Kenya. He then began his doctoral studies under Wolfgang Böhme at the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig. In 2003, he contributed to the design and construction of the ornithological display collection in the permanent exhibition Unser blauer Planet ("Our Blue Planet"). Since 2011, Wagner has also been a research associate at Villanova University, Pennsylvania, and was a visiting professor of zoology at the University of Herat in Afghanistan in late 2011.

Career and research Wagner has published in journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, and Science, as well as in specialized herpetological literature. He serves as an editor for the journals Salamandra, Herpetology Notes, Tropical Zoology, Herpetozoa, and Mertensiella. His research focuses primarily on the northwestern regions of Zambia, where he documented the composition of amphibian and reptile species. He is a principal investigator in the project “ZamBio, Diversity of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Luangwa Valley”, in collaboration with the Zambian Wildlife Authority, the University of Zambia, and the Livingstone Museum. Wagner’s work also addresses the taxonomy of agamas and the herpetogeography of African forests. He is co-author of several species descriptions, including Cerastes boehmei, Gloydius rickmersi, and Cardioglossa occidentalis, as well as numerous agamid lizards. Another field of interest is fossil lizards preserved in amber. He is regarded as an internationally recognized expert on African, Arabian, and Central Asian agamid lizards.

Species described Wagner is (co-)author of numerous taxa, including:

Agama finchi (Böhme, Wagner, Malonza, Lötters & Köhler, 2005) Trapelus schmitzi (Wagner & Böhme, 2007) Cardioglossa occidentalis (Blackburn et al., 2008) Cerastes boehmei (Wagner & Wilms, 2010) Agama lucyae (Wagner & Bauer, 2011) Acanthocercus branchi (Wagner, Greenbaum & Bauer, 2012) Xenagama wilmsi (Wagner, Mazuch & Bauer, 2013) Agama lanzai (Wagner, Leaché, Mazuch & Böhme, 2013) Gloydius rickmersi (Wagner, Tiutenko, Borkin & Simonov, 2016) Protodraco monocoli (Wagner, Stanley, Daza & Bauer, 2021) and many others.

Eponyms Tetramorium philippwagneri (Hita-Garcia et al., 2010)

Selected publications Wagner, P., Broadley, D. G., & Bauer, A. M. (2012). "A New Acontine Skink from Zambia (Scincidae: Acontias Cuvier, 1817)." Journal of Herpetology, 46: 494–502. Blackburn, D. C. et al. (2008). "A New Species of Cardioglossa (Anura: Arthroleptidae) from the Upper Guinean Forests of West Africa." Copeia 3: 603–612. Wagner, P., Köhler, J., Schmitz, A., & Böhme, W. (2008). "The Biogeographical Assignment of a West Kenyan Rain Forest Remnant: Further Evidence From Analysis of Its Reptile Fauna." Journal of Biogeography, 35: 1349–1361. Wagner, P., Melville, J., Wilms, T. M., & Schmitz, A. (2011). "Opening a box of cryptic taxa? A review of the morphology and current taxonomy of the lizard genus Trapelus in northern Africa and description of a new species." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 163: 884–912. Wagner, P. & Bauer, A. M. (2011). "A new dwarf Agama (Sauria: Agamidae) from Ethiopia." Breviora, 527: 1–19. Wagner, P., Leaché, A. D. & Fujita, M. K. (2014). "Description of four new West African forest geckos of the Hemidactylus fasciatus complex, revealed by coalescent species delimitation." Bonn zoological Bulletin, 63: 1–14.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Philipp Wagner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner

In research: Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner 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: Philipp Wagner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 births, German biologists, German herpetologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Philipp Wagner 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.

How to study Philipp Wagner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Philipp Wagner in simple terms?

Philipp Rüdiger Wagner (born 29 November 1973) is a German biologist and herpetologist. He was trained at the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn and received his doctorate there, as well as at the University of Bonn.

Why does Philipp Wagner 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 Philipp Wagner?

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 Philipp Wagner.