Himmelmann, Prof. Nikolaus

Nikolaus Himmelmann chairs the board of the Gesellschaft für bedrohte Sprachen (German Society for Endangered Languages). He is renowned for his work in language documentation, typology, Austronesian and Papuan languages, especially in Indonesia and East Timor. He played a key role in establishing documentary linguistics as an academic discipline, and collaborated closely with VW Foundation in establishing the initiative to document endangered languages (DoBeS). Himmelmann chairs General Linguistics at the University of Cologne.