Walter Pohl is an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n historian. His area of expertise is the history of the Migration Period

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 and the Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

.

Pohl is director of the Institut für Mittelalterforschung (Institute for Middle Ages Research) (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/gema/) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Austrian Academy of Sciences

The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a legal entity under the special protection of the Federal Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research...

as well as a university professor of history of the Middle Ages and historical subsidiary sciences at the historical-culture-scientific faculty at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

. In the year 2004 he was awarded the Wittgenstein-Preis

Wittgenstein-Preis

The Wittgenstein-Preis is the highest Austrian science award.It is awarded once per year by the Austrian Science Fund on behalf of the Austrian Ministry for Science.The prize money of 1.5 million euro is tied to research activities in the following six years....

. Since the summer 2002 he is an Austrian representative in the Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation

European Science Foundation

The European Science Foundation is an association of 78 member organisations devoted to scientific research in 30 European countries. It is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that facilitates cooperation and collaboration in European research and development, European...

 (ESF) as well as delegates in the general assembly of the ESF.

His main areas of research include (among other things):

• Conversion of the Roman world and the realms of the early Middle Ages (see Late Antiquity
  Late Antiquity
  Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
  
  )
• Ethnic processes and identities between ancient and the Middle Ages
• The Migration Period
  Migration Period
  The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
  
  and other migrations.
• Historiography
• Early medieval law books
• History of the steppe peoples
• History and culture history of Italy until around 1000
• Many encyclopedia articles in German and English.

External links

• http://www.oeaw.ac.at/gema/wittg_pro/wp_lebenslauf.htm
• http://www.oeaw.ac.at/oeaw_servlet/PersonenDetailsGeneric?id=11208
• http://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichtsforschung/
• http://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/