research
My research is in the field of behavioral ecology*.
I focus on the role of information & uncertainty in various aspects of the ecology & evolution of behavior,
including: sexual selection, social behavior, communication, conflict & cooperation,
predator-prey interactions, habitat choice & the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.
I focus on the role of information & uncertainty in various aspects of the ecology & evolution of behavior,
including: sexual selection, social behavior, communication, conflict & cooperation,
predator-prey interactions, habitat choice & the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.
I have always been interested in understanding how things work,
which is why I got a BSE in engineering; I figured engineers know how things work.
In due course I decided that humans and other creatures are the most interesting things
and that it is most satisfying to be able to explain them in terms of their ecology, evolution and social interactions.
This led me to a PhD in biology at UMich,
where I got to know and work with an incredible array of geniuses, eccentric characters and lunatics
(my advisor, Brian A. Hazlett, projected onto all three dimensions).
This led to terrific postdocs with John Krebs (Oxford), Lee Gass (UBC) & Ron Pulliam (UGA).
All this eventually led to the opportunity to work with many wonderful colleagues and students at MSU.
Most of my research could be seen as ‘reverse engineering.’
It was interesting to be working with engineers again in our BEACON STC project on Evolution in Action.
which is why I got a BSE in engineering; I figured engineers know how things work.
In due course I decided that humans and other creatures are the most interesting things
and that it is most satisfying to be able to explain them in terms of their ecology, evolution and social interactions.
This led me to a PhD in biology at UMich,
where I got to know and work with an incredible array of geniuses, eccentric characters and lunatics
(my advisor, Brian A. Hazlett, projected onto all three dimensions).
This led to terrific postdocs with John Krebs (Oxford), Lee Gass (UBC) & Ron Pulliam (UGA).
All this eventually led to the opportunity to work with many wonderful colleagues and students at MSU.
Most of my research could be seen as ‘reverse engineering.’
It was interesting to be working with engineers again in our BEACON STC project on Evolution in Action.
All of my publications
are listed at my Google Scholar profile:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c_mtTtIAAAAJ&hl=en
John Krebs provided a very perceptive and pithy perspective on the inescapable role of theory and models in biology in a wonderful little paper entitled Ornithologists as Unconscious Theorists (1980) Auk 97: 409-412.
Nate Silver paints the same picture from a different perspective in The Signal and the Noise (2012; pg 14): “we can never make perfectly objective predictions. They will always be tainted by our subjective point of view.” Silver credits Karl Popper with the insight that prediction “connects subjective and objective reality.” This is one reason why modeling decisions, which implicitly predict the future, is usually approached as a Bayesian process, sensitive to prior experience or expectations.
Nate Silver paints the same picture from a different perspective in The Signal and the Noise (2012; pg 14): “we can never make perfectly objective predictions. They will always be tainted by our subjective point of view.” Silver credits Karl Popper with the insight that prediction “connects subjective and objective reality.” This is one reason why modeling decisions, which implicitly predict the future, is usually approached as a Bayesian process, sensitive to prior experience or expectations.
You might enjoy E.O. Wilson’s book LETTERS TO A YOUNG SCIENTIST.
Wilson is my ‘academic grandfather‘ by way of Brian Hazlett.
I don’t always agree with Wilson (see Abbot et al. above),
but I do like a lot of what he has to say here.
I particularly like his thoughts on The Creative Process in ch. 5:
“... much of good science - and perhaps all of great science - has its roots in fantasy ... Daydream a lot. ... Give lectures to yourself about important topics.”
- but try not to lecture to your friends and family -
*Actually, the research in my lab is pretty interdisciplinary, general and diverse. It has been cited in >200 different journals, from Acta Oecologica to Zygon, including along the way: Annals of Medicine, British Journal of Aesthetics, American Antiquity, Archive fur Hydrobiologie, BMC Infectious Diseases, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Crustaceana, Dendrobiology, European Journal of Personality, European Sports Management Quarterly, Flora, The Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership, Livestock Production Science, Minds and Machines, Musicae Scientiae, Nature, Ostrich, Parasitology, Periodicum Biologorum, Personal Relationships, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Psychological Bulletin, Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, Science ...
I think my favorite citation is in:
Why Heroism Exists: Evolutionary Perspectives on Extreme Helping
S Kafashan, A Sparks, A Rotella, P Barclay. 2016.
In: The Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership.
The possibility that my research has anything to do with heroism strikes me as very amusing.
I think my favorite citation is in:
Why Heroism Exists: Evolutionary Perspectives on Extreme Helping
S Kafashan, A Sparks, A Rotella, P Barclay. 2016.
In: The Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership.
The possibility that my research has anything to do with heroism strikes me as very amusing.