(Interview from 2023)

Dagmar Möbius

Before he could even read, Maximilian Pink was obsessed with animal encyclopedias. He loved watching animal films on TV and had his heart firmly set on becoming a biologist. As a Saarland native, he told KONTAKT why he moved “quite far away” for his Master’s degree, what ants mean to him, why taxonomy is a “neglected field” and why he is currently tinkering with artificial flowers.

“I was an incorrigible know-it-all as a child,” Maximilian Pink remembers with a smile. “I knew all the animals from the encyclopedias that my parents had read to me. And I guess I’m an example that too much TV doesn’t necessarily do harm, because I spend my time watching animal documentaries from dusk to dawn.

Enthusiastic about taxonomy

Maximilian Pink studied biology in Konstanz. His Bachelor’s degree in 2017 was followed by a Master’s semester in biosciences in Würzburg. But he was drawn to the far eastern tip of Germany. At the International Institute (IHI) Zittau, he enrolled in the English-language Master’s program “Biodiversity and Collection Management” (today: „Organismic and Molecular Biodiversity“). “The special focus on taxonomy was a game changer for me.” In the process, he found eastern Saxony to be much more pleasant than how it is presented in the media.  “I very much enjoyed the time there and met a lot of individuals committed to standing up to the right-wing extremists,” he emphasized.

Fundamental research needed, especially in the tropics

“Nowadays, taxonomy experts are usually found in museums,” says the 29-year-old laughing: “But they are at risk of dying out.” They divide organisms (animals, plants, fungi, etc.) into groups based on species, genera and families, and must possess a great deal of knowledge about the individual organisms. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” explains Maximilian Pink. As it stands today, beetles are the largest group of organisms. “Once you leave the Western world, we have our work cut out for us in terms of describing new species. It is a form of fundamental research.” There is a lot of catching up to do, especially in tropical areas, to which he has traveled a number of times. He spent three months at a wildlife sanctuary in Peru in 2017; he worked on a mushroom farm in Ecuador; and he completed a tropical ecology internship in Kenya in 2018.

Countless animal and plant species under the microscope

Alongside 14 fellow students from China, Canada, Mongolia, Nigeria and Peru, Maximilian Pink was one of three Germans to learn how to identify a plethora of animal and plant species. “Every week, we worked with renowned experts from the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz to learn about new groups of organisms. There was a lot of microscope work involved,” he says. In the summer, we went on exciting expeditions. However, one of his teachers predicted that the young biologist would not become a taxonomist because he had too many diverse interests. He made sure to come to Upper Lusatia, of all places, because of the ant specialist Bernhard Seifert. Nevertheless, he considers everything he learned to be highly valuable.

How fascinating are ants?

Speaking of ants - Maximilian Pink has a soft spot for these industrious animals. He was already paying close attention to the behavior of ants while writing his Bachelor’s thesis. “It’s super exciting,” he smiles. “The individual ant may not be a genius, but give it simple group rules and it can exhibit complex behaviors - it becomes flexible and adapted.” Because of this, he even keeps ants as pets, which is a lot easier said than done.  He wrote his Master’s thesis on an agroecological topic in Göttingen. It was about questions of our time: about the diversity of landscape structures, how we can best utilize them and how food is grown. “Some agroecological issues are also political issues, especially in Europe,” Maximilian Pink explains. However, many measures and methods could easily be implemented. This is what really drives him.

Hoverflies and artificial flowers

Despite graduating with a top grade (1.2), it wasn’t easy for the young biodiversity expert to find a job with his Master’s degree in 2021. He thought about branching out into the area of development aid. Looking for a PhD position, he faced a “bottleneck in the job market.” “I even ended up working in a supermarket for a few months;” he says. He happened upon his current position at the Julius Kühn Institute in Dossenheim purely by chance. He has been working as a part-time research associate since July 2022, working on method development in insect monitoring. “Science cottoned on a few years ago to the fact that an insane number of insects has gone missing,” Maximilian Pink explains. This is particularly relevant in the agricultural sector. Hoverflies, for example, are very useful as pollinators and because their larvae eat aphids. Population levels do need to be monitored, however. To avoid having to capture and kill insects for research purposes, Maximilian Pink and his colleagues are developing standardized artificial flowers. “We hope that the insects will perch on them and leave DNA behind, which we can then collect and analyze,” he says. Whether it will work as intended is yet to be seen. AI-assisted cameras will also make an appearance.

Quo vadis? Where to now?

Presenting his academic work in an understandable way is something Maximilian Pink is used to. At his Institute for Biological Control, he is also responsible for the transfer of knowledge to society.  One of the challenges he is faced with is breaking down complex phenomena in a way that is accessible to the public.

So he didn’t end up becoming a taxonomist after all. But the network of experts that were integrated into his studies in Zittau, the required reading and the experience he got under his belt help him every day in his professional life.

He doesn’t know what his next step will be after his current contract ends. “I would like to stay in research and do a PhD,” he says from his new home in Heidelberg. But he can also imagine working in the agricultural industry.

Contact:
Maximilian Pink M.Sc.

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