Reinhard Zetter, an appreciation

Abstract

At the beginning of 2020 the Austrian palynologist, Reinhard Zetter, turned 65. This issue, composed of articles by his colleagues and some of his former students, is dedicated to him.Reinhard (Figure 1) was born on Sunday, 23 January 1955, the last day of the Year of the Horse according to the Chinese calendar. He certainly embodies some of the positive characteristics attributed to a 'horse', being warm-hearted, enthusiastic about those things he believes in, and his independent nature. The latter trait may be the result of growing up at a time when Austria was enjoying its newly-gained independence after ten years of foreign occupation (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955). He was brought up in Pinkafeld (Burgenland, southeast Austria), and this is where he received his primary education (1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969). He then attended the protestant grammar school in nearby Oberschützen.In 1973 he registered at the University of Vienna to train as a secondary school teacher in Biology and Earth Sciences. One of his professors was the palynologist Wilhelm Klaus (1921Klaus ( -1987. Professor Klaus clearly recognised a potential in this young man, because he first appointed him as his demonstrator at the Palaeontological Institute (1977)(1978)(1979), before offering him an assistant professorship once he finished his Magister (Masters) in June 1979. Three years later Reinhard completed his Doctorate on the fossil record of Fagus. One of his jobs as Professor Klaus's assistant was to operate the slide projector during the professor's lectures. When Professor Klaus died prematurely, Reinhard was landed with the task of teaching all the palaeobotanical and palynological courses, until Professor Klaus's successor, David K. Ferguson, was appointed in 1992. Only then could he get back to his beloved research. Although he has more than 30 years teaching experi-