Richard Woltereck

Richard Woltereck
Born(1877-04-06)6 April 1877
Died23 February 1944(1944-02-23) (aged 66)
NationalityGerman
EducationUniversity of Freiburg
Known forReaction norm
AwardsMember of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Scientific career
FieldsZoology
InstitutionsUniversity of Leipzig
Thesis Zur Bildung und Entwicklung des Ostrakoden-Eies: kerngeschichtliche und biologische Studien an parthenogenetischen Cypriden  (1898)
Academic advisorsAugust Weismann

Richard Woltereck (6 April 1877 – 23 February 1944) was a German zoologist best known for developing the concept of reaction norm (German: Reaktionsnorm). He also conducted some of the first research that provided evidence for the process of cytoplasmic inheritance. He proposed the concept in a 1909 paper that he presented to the German Zoological Society, based on his own research on the Daphnia water flea. According to historian Raphael Falk, the concept of the reaction norm was later revived by Richard Lewontin.