Geobiology of stromatolites - GWDG

Biography International Kalkowsky-Symposium „Geobiology of Stromatolites“, October 4-11, 2008
Fig. 5. Ernst Louis Kalkowsky [2 nd row, 3 rd from left] with colleagues during a meeting in Dresden
on December 19 th, 1895. [© SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek]
Even back in his school days, Kalkowsky was very passionate of mineralogy and
geology. In those early times, the desire to become a professor of mineralogy
emerged. Knowing this, his subsequent enthusiasm and meticulousness in this
research topic is not surprising.
In the first 20 years of his scientific career after his doctor’s degree, his research
was mostly dedicated to optical mineralogy following the successful research of his
doctoral advisor F. Zirkel in this new field of geology. In that period, Kalkowsky
deals with this subject in more than 25 papers, especially regarding the regional
rock formations of Saxony (Rimann 1940; Mathé 1993).
His first and only comprehensive textbook “Elemente der Lithologie” (1886) was also
published in this phase of his life.
After becoming the professorship ordinary of mineralogy and geology at Dresden
University, the demands of teaching and administration caused a certain decrease
in his publication practice (Rimann 1940). Nevertheless, he developed a strong
interest in nephrite, an amphibole mineral of the solid solution series of tremolite
and actinolite. This is expressed in four substantial papers on this matter.
Considering Palaeontology an ancillary science – belonging more to biology than
to geology – Kalkowsky was strongly reserved in any research on this topic
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