Desert Island Biological Laboratory, and a consultant to the National Science Foundation.

Schmidt-Nielsen published over 275 scientific papers and wrote the authoritative text on animal physiology.

In 1980, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen was elected President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences.

[5][6] Next to the Biological Science building on Duke's campus is a statue of Schmidt-Nielsen looking at a camel, honoring his more than twenty years of work studying and dispelling myths on how camels withstand the harsh desert environment.

[7] [8] He was recipient of the 1992 International Prize for Biology awarded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.