Josef Biegert (1921–89) was an eminent anthropologist and primatologist at the University of Zürich. Born in Germany, he received his MD from the Goethe University, Frankfurt, in 1947. After several years of research in classical anthropology at Tübingen University, he entered the Anthropological Institute of the University of Zürich, known at that time as an important center of comparative primatology. He succeeded his mentor, A. H. Schultz, as director of the institute in 1962. During his tenure, Biegert published important metric and nonmetric studies in comparative primatology. Until his retirement in 1988, he edited the journal Folia Primatologica.