Dr. Rudolf Diesel

I started my career with an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering, then studied industrial engineering, worked at IBM Germany, and later went back to university to study animal behavior — one of my great passions since my youth. I have a doctorate in natural sciences and a postdoctoral qualification in zoology.

My scientific career began at the Max-Planck Institute of Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen (D). Later I worked in marine biology at the Center National de la Recherché Scientifique (CNRS F). I lecturered at the University of Bielefeld (D) and at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch (NZ).

For over 20 years I have been conducting field research in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, Panama, Jamaica and many other islands in the Caribbean, Singapore, Borneo, New Zealand, Malaysia, Tasmania and various other places. I have published the results of my research in more than 40 scientific articles and books.

In addition to my scientific interests, I am a passionate natural scientist. I started documenting our world with a photo and film camera at the age of 16. In 2000, I founded ScienceMedia and have been working as a freelance filmmaker and nature photographer ever since. My films have been broadcast by German TV stations and the footage has been used in various BBC nature documentaries, among others. As a photographer I have worked for BBC Wildlife, National Geographic Magazine and Reader's Digest, among others.

In 2004, my interest turned to the fascinating field of high-speed videography. After testing various high-speed cameras, I developed the TyphoonHD4 system as a mobile and versatile high-speed-digital camera system that met the high standards and requirements of nature documentaries.

In 2007, I designed and built an underwater housing for the TyphoonHD4 — a difficult task to control all camera functions externally via control buttons. The underwater housing was first used for the BBC series South Pacific Series Micronesia/Pohnpei and later for the Galápagos Islands, where it provided impressive footage of surfers in huge waves.

In 2008 I designed and built a new underwater housing for the Phantom Flex high-speed camera; this housing opened many new features and possibilities for capturing high-quality ultra-slow-motion video at 2500 frames per second underwater. The Phantom Flex underwater housing was easy to handle. The first use was with the BBC in the Solomon Islands (South Pacific).

In 2019, I started developing underwater film robots, known as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). They are equipped with high-resolution cameras to provide the best image quality from the largely unknown ocean depths. They have been used successfully in the fjords of Norway and at the STARESO marine research institute in Corsica.

Now I am looking forward to new challenges.