Ulrich Loening
Former Director of The Edinburgh Centre for Human Ecology and CHEC Conference Partner
In 1959 Ulrich went to Scotland on an Agricultural Research Council research fellowship at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. Three years later, he accepted a lectureship in Botany Department Edinburgh University, transferring in 1969 to the Zoology Department to continue his molecular research on both animals and plants.
In 1972, his colleague the geneticist Conrad Waddington established the School of the Man-Made Future (human ecology by another name), which the University of Edinburgh shut down after Waddington’s death in 1976. Largely through Ulrich’s efforts, it was re-established as the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE) and he became its director in 1986. The CHE was challenging to mainstream academia, whether questioning the sustainability of industrial farming, raising the alarm on climate change or pressing the case for Scottish land reform.
In 1996, after a protracted struggle, the university closed it down. A New Scientist editorial commented that “at considerable loss to the university’s intellectual tradition” it had “decided to be rid of its outspoken Centre for Human Ecology” and “a tradition of fearless inquiry will be broken.”
However, through the efforts of its former students, staff and scholarly well-wishers, the MSc course ran on. Initially this was through the Open University, then at Strathclyde University until it contracted its social sciences teaching in 2010. Today, the CHE (but no longer the MSc) is a small but independent educational unit based in Govan.
“Human Ecology” is puzzling to most people. As Ulrich wrote in an essay in Radical Human Ecology: “Most people readily appreciate what gorilla or elephant ecology is about; but not when applied to humans.”
Ulrich took part in CHEC’s series of conferences in the 1970’s and 1980’s alongside such eminent academic human ecologists as Paul Rogers (Huddersfield) and Pugh-Thomas (Salford). The Edinburgh Centre for Human Ecology played a major role in CHEC’s 1989 Edinburgh Conference in 1989, alongside the Patrick Geddes Centre in which Eleanor Morris was lecturing on Planning. He also supported the work of the Society for Human Ecology and of the European Association for Human Ecology attending many of their meetings. Ulrich was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for Human Ecology.
However, two things make Ulrich stand out from other human ecologists: his dedication to his students and his living a life in harmony with nature. The tributes on him on the Cente for Human Ecology’s website (https://www.che.ac.uk/news/in-memory-of-ulrich-loening/) bear this out, with comments such as “Ulrich created an unforgettable social and physical environment that was exceptionally full of warmth and inspiration. There are conversations that I still remember to this day” and “Human ecology conveys that the network feedbacks continue to echo beyond the life of any node, but this core link will be much missed, I hope Ulrich’s idea-list continues to grow”. He taught , researched and lived human ecology.
With kind thanks to Ian Douglas and Eva Ekehorn
21 October 2025