AIBS Press Release:

The 2010 AIBS President's Citation will be presented to Dr. Mark A. McPeek, the David T. McLaughlin Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College. The President's Citation recognizes meritorious accomplishments by an individual or group in the biological sciences. McPeek's research integrates empirical and theoretical studies of the ecological processes that structure biological communities and how some ecological processes have shaped the adaptation and diversification of the organisms that constitute these communities. "Mark epitomizes the well-rounded biologist. His work on adaptation and ecology in damselflies integrates work in community ecology, population biology, molecular phylogenetics, biochemistry and physiology, behavioral ecology, and mathematical theory. From developing methods for comparative analyses to performing demanding field experiments, Mark has integrated discoveries in different areas to reconstruct one of the most compelling of our modern case studies of adaptation in the whole organism," said Travis.

McPeek was "tremendously surprised and honored" to learn that he had been selected to receive the President's Citation. "Working across disciplinary boundaries is now more important than ever, and I hope this will encourage many others to push more aggressively across those boundaries," said McPeek. McPeek received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University for research in community ecology and evolution conducted at the Kellogg Biological Field Station in Michigan. He received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Kentucky. McPeek currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, American Naturalist, a publication of the American Society of Naturalists. The American Society of Naturalists is a professional scientific society dedicated to advancing and disseminating knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance the conceptual unification of the biological sciences.

President-Elect

Stevan J. Arnold: Professor of Zoology and Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, Oregon State University, Corvallis. In my student years, I worked in museums and discussed systematics on a daily basis, first as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1966), then as a graduate student at the University of Michigan (Ph.D., 1972) and, as a Miller postdoc, back at Berkeley. I began to study quantitative genetics as a faculty member at the University of Chicago, with the help of my colleagues R. Lande and M. J. Wade, and continued that focus during sabbaticals with W. Hill (Edinburgh), M. Bulmer ( Oxford), and J. Felsenstein ( Seattle). After 23 years at Chicago, I moved to Corvallis in 1997. Throughout my professorial years, I’ve embraced the ASN mission to seek “conceptual unification of the biological sciences,” most recently by trying to bridge between micro- and macro-evolution using quantitative genetic theory. I published my first paper in The American Naturalist (in 1972) and have served on a few committees and as Vice-President of the ASN (1993). I’ve also served on the editorial boards of the University of Chicago Press and three journals (Animal Behaviour, Evolution, Journal of Theoretical Biology) and as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1998). I am a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society (1992) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2009). Currently I am writing a book on phenotypic evolution for Sinauer Associates.

Vice-President-Elect

Hopi E. Hoekstra: John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Mammals, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. I received my B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and then my Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington. I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona and was awarded the ASN Young Investigator’s Prize. In 2003, I became an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego before moving to Harvard in 2007. I am broadly interested in understanding how variation is generated and maintained in natural populations. Specifically, my lab group has used natural populations of rodents to understand the ultimate (timing, strength, and agent of selection) and proximate (molecular, genetic, and developmental) causes of evolutionary change. While initially we focused on the genetic basis of color adaptation in beach mice, we now have expanded this work to other species (i.e., deer mice and lizards) and other fitness-related traits (e.g., venom, tail length, and reproductive traits, including sperm size, sperm performance, and sperm-egg interactions). To this end, we use a variety of approaches—from ecological experiments in the field to molecular and developmental genetics in the laboratory. While much of our work has focused on morphological adaptation, we are now extending our integrative approach to study the evolution and genetics of behavior. My service contributions include: Scientific Advisory Committee, Uppsala Centre for Evolution and Genomics (2010–present); Elected Council Member, European Society for Evolutionary Biology (2009–present); Member, Faculty of 1000 (2009–present); Elected Council Member, Society for the Study of Evolution (2009–present); Elected Council Member, American Genetics Association (2008–present); National Institutes of Health Grant Review Panel (2008–2010); Associate Editor, Evolution (2007–2010); Science Advisory Board, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (2007–2010); and National Science Foundation Grant Review Panel (2005).

Robert Ricklefs Receives Humboldt Research Award