Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988) is known for his studies of stimulus-response processes in wasps, fishes, and gulls. He shared the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1973 for work on the organization and causes of social and individual patterns of behavior in animals.

Nikolaas Tinbergen, a zoologist, animal psychologist, and pioneer in the field of ethology (the study of the behavior of animals in relation to their habitat), is most well known for his studies of stimulus-response processes in wasps, fishes, and gulls. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Austrian zoologists Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for his work on the organization and causes of social and individual patterns of behavior in animals.

The third of five children, Tinbergen was born April 15, 1907, in The Hague, Netherlands, to Dirk Cornelius Tinbergen, a school teacher, and Jeanette van Eek. His older brother Jan studied physics but later turned...