Maurice Kottelat

Maurice Kottelat (born 16 July 1957^[1] in Delémont, Switzerland^[2]) is a Swiss ichthyologist specializing in Eurasian freshwater fishes.

Kottelat obtained a License in Sciences at the University of Neuchâtel in 1987^[3] and in 1989 a doctoral degree from the University of Amsterdam. In 1980 he went to Thailand where he began his field research on Southeast Asian and Indonesian fresh water fishes.^[3] In 1997 he wrote an important revision on the genus Coregonus, which includes the fish species from Lake Geneva, Lake Constance and other lakes in Switzerland.^[4] Together with Dr. Tan Heok Hui he worked in Sumatra, where they discovered Paedocypris progenetica, which is considered the smallest fish in the world.^[5] In 2007 he published a Handbook of European Freshwater Fishes together with Jörg Freyhof. Kottelat has described more than 440 fish species new to science.^[6]

In 2006 he was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa degree at the University of Neuchâtel.^[7] Kottelat is the former (1997-2007) and present (2012-present) president of the European Ichthyological Society.^[2] He is a commissioner of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. For most of his career, he has held no academic position but worked as a "freelance taxonomist".^[2]

Works (selected)

• 1990 Maurice Kottelat: Indochinese Nemacheilines, a revision of nemacheiline loaches (Pisces: Cypriniformes) of Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and southern Viet Nam. 180 text-figures. 8vo, pp. 262^[8]
• 1996 Maurice Kottelat & Tony Whitten: Freshwater Biodiversity in Asia: With Special Reference to Fish^[9]
• 1997 Maurice Kottelat: European Freshwater fishes. An heuristic checklist of the freshwater fishes of Europe (exclusive of former USSR), with an introduction for non-systematists and comments on nomenclature and conservation. Biologia (Bratislava) Sect. Zool., 52 (Suppl.):1-271.^[8]
• 1997 Maurice Kottelat: Freshwater Fishes of Western Indonesia and Sulawesi^[9]
• 1998 Maurice Kottelat: Fishes of Brazil - An Aid to the Study of Spix and Agassiz's (1829-31) Selecta Genera et Species Piscium Brasiliensium Including an English Translation of the Entire Text by V.L. Wirasinha and Reproduction of all Illustrations^[8]
• 2001 Maurice Kottelat : Fishes of Laos^[8]
• 2001 Maurice Kottelat: Freshwater fishes of Northern Vietnam: A preliminary check-list of the fishes known or expected to occur in Northern Vietnam : with comments on systematics and nomenclature^[8]
• 2007 Maurice Kottelat & Jörg Freyhof: Handbook of European Freshwater Fishes Published by the authors. ISBN 978-2-8399-0298-4
• 2012 Maurice Kottelat: Conspectus cobitidum: an inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei) Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 26: 1–199.
• 2013 Maurice Kottelat: The fishes of inland waters of Southeast Asia: a catalogue and core bibliography of the fishes known to occur in freshwaters, mangroves and estuaries. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 27: 1-663.

References