Marie Dacke
{{short description|Swedish biologist and researcher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1973}}
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| alma_mater = Lund University
| awards = Ig Nobel Prize, Forskar Grand Prix
| television = Studio Natur
| relatives =
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Marie Ann-Charlotte Dacke is a professor of Sensory Biology, at the Lund Vision Group in Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Her research focuses on nocturnal and diurnal compass systems, using the dung beetle as a model organism. Dacke is a Wallenberg Scholar as of 2025.{{Cite web |title=Marie Dacke {{!}} Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse |url=https://kaw.wallenberg.org/marie-dacke |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=kaw.wallenberg.org |language=sv}} In 2022, she was elected a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Dacke has a keen interest for the education of the general public and among other things act as a panel member of the Swedish TV show Studio Natur. In 2013, she received an Ig Nobel Prize for her work on the navigation system of dung beetles. Since 2018, she is also an honorary professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Early life and career
Dacke went to high school in Landskrona.{{Cite web|url=https://www.skd.se/2015/09/07/insekterna-lar-henne-hur-man-hittar-ratt/|title=Insekterna lär henne hur man hittar rätt|last=Jacobsson|first=Håkan|date=7 September 2015|website=www.skd.se|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 September 2019}} After graduating from high school she attended Lund University where she studied biology. Here, she completed her Ph.D. on Celestial Orientation in Dim Light{{cite thesis | url=https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/466061 | title=Celestial Orientation in Dim Light | date=16 March 2024 | publisher=Lund University | type=thesis/doccomp | last1=Dacke | first1=Marie }} in 2003, under the supervision of Professor Dan-Eric Nilsson. Her thesis focused on how optical compasses are built, how they are used and how they are adapted to work at low light intensities. During her Ph.D, she discovered a unique compass organ in spiders, a study which was published in Nature in 1999.{{cite journal |last1=Dacke |first1=M. |last2=Nilsson |first2=D.-E. |last3=Warrant |first3=E. J. |last4=Blest |first4=A. D. |last5=Land |first5=M. F. |last6=O'Carroll |first6=D. C. |title=Built-in polarizers form part of a compass organ in spiders |journal=Nature |date=September 1999 |volume=401 |issue=6752 |pages=470–473 |doi=10.1038/46773 |bibcode=1999Natur.401..470D |s2cid=4384284 }} A few years later she revealed the first evidence of an animal able to use the dim pattern of polarized moon-light for orientation, a study also published in Nature in 2003.{{cite journal |last1=Dacke |first1=Marie |last2=Nilsson |first2=Dan-Eric |last3=Scholtz |first3=Clarke H. |last4=Byrne |first4=Marcus |last5=Warrant |first5=Eric J. |title=Insect orientation to polarized moonlight |journal=Nature |date=July 2003 |volume=424 |issue=6944 |pages=33 |doi=10.1038/424033a |pmid=12840748 }}
After her Ph.D., she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Visual Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra.{{Cite web|url=https://www.biology.lu.se/marie-dacke|title=Marie Dacke|date=16 May 2014|website=Department of Biology|language=en|access-date=4 September 2019}} In 2007, she returned to Lund University as a research fellow and in 2011 she became an associate professor in Sensory Biology. She became a Professor in Sensory Biology in 2017.
Dacke's research is focused on navigation and orientation in insects, in particular orientation in dung beetles.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sverigesungaakademi.se/en/788.html|title=Marie Dacke – Sveriges Unga Akademi|website=www.sverigesungaakademi.se|language=en|access-date=4 September 2019|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129120744/https://www.sverigesungaakademi.se/en/788.html|url-status=dead}} She is interested in the celestial compass (which is the use of the sky to guide navigation). By exploring the interface between behaviour, neurobiology and cognition, her research tries to understand how diurnal and nocturnal compass systems of insects work. In 2013, she, together with Marcus Byrne, Emily Baird, Clark Scholtz and Eric Warrant, received the Ig Nobel Prize in the joint astronomy and biology category for showing that nocturnal dung beetles can use the Milky Way as a compass.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/lund-university-researchers-win-ig-nobel-prize|title=Lund University researchers win Ig Nobel Prize|date=13 September 2013|website=Lund University|language=en|access-date=4 September 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013|title=Winners Ig Nobel Prize 2013|last=|first=|date=August 2006|website=Improbable|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109104410/http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013|archive-date=9 January 2010|access-date=4 September 2019|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/2013/09/24/marie-dacke-explains-how-dung-beetles-navigate/|title=Marie Dacke explains how dung beetles navigate|date=24 September 2013|website=Improbable Research|access-date=4 September 2019}} This research was published in Current Biology.{{cite journal |last1=Dacke |first1=Marie |last2=Baird |first2=Emily |last3=Byrne |first3=Marcus |last4=Scholtz |first4=Clarke H. |last5=Warrant |first5=Eric J. |title=Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation |journal=Current Biology |date=2013 |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=298–300 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.034|pmid=23352694 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2013CBio...23..298D }} In 2014, Dacke received an Excellent Young Researchers grant from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) to continue her research on the compass systems of dung beetles, exploring the link between electrophysiology and behaviour. Part of this research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2015{{cite journal | doi=10.1073/pnas.1501272112 | title=Neural coding underlying the cue preference for celestial orientation | date=2015 | last1=El Jundi | first1=Basil | last2=Warrant | first2=Eric J. | last3=Byrne | first3=Marcus J. | last4=Khaldy | first4=Lana | last5=Baird | first5=Emily | last6=Smolka | first6=Jochen | last7=Dacke | first7=Marie | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=112 | issue=36 | pages=11395–11400 | doi-access=free | pmid=26305929 | bibcode=2015PNAS..11211395E | pmc=4568659 }} and Current Biology in 2016.[https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(16)30206-8.pdf A Snapshot-Based Mechanism for Celestial Orientation]. cell.com
In 2018, Dacke received funding from the European Research Council to expand further on her work, and define the principles behind multimodal navigational systems, studying brain activity in dung beetles as they perform their orientation behaviour.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/prestigious-grants-for-research-on-biological-compasses-and-the-threat-to-pollinating-insects|title=Prestigious grants for research on biological compasses and the threat to pollinating insects|date=29 November 2018|website=Lund University|language=en|access-date=11 September 2019}} Part of this cross-disciplinary research was published in PNAS in 2019{{cite journal | doi=10.1073/pnas.1904308116 | title=Multimodal cue integration in the dung beetle compass | date=2019 | last1=Dacke | first1=Marie | last2=Bell | first2=Adrian T. A. | last3=Foster | first3=James J. | last4=Baird | first4=Emily J. | last5=Strube-Bloss | first5=Martin F. | last6=Byrne | first6=Marcus J. | last7=El Jundi | first7=Basil | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=116 | issue=28 | pages=14248–14253 | doi-access=free | pmid=31235569 | bibcode=2019PNAS..11614248D | pmc=6628800 }} and iScience in 2022.{{cite journal | url=| doi=10.1016/j.isci.2022.105207 | title=Weighted cue integration for straight-line orientation | date=2022 | last1=Shaverdian | first1=Shahrzad | last2=Dirlik | first2=Elin | last3=Mitchell | first3=Robert | last4=Tocco | first4=Claudia | last5=Webb | first5=Barbara | last6=Dacke | first6=Marie | journal=iScience | volume=25 | issue=10 | pmid=36274940 | pmc=9583106 | bibcode=2022iSci...25j5207S }}
Dacke has been elected a fellow of the Young Academy of Sweden (2011), Royal Physiographic Society of Lund (2017), Royal Entomological Society of London (2018), Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2022) and Societas Ad Sciendum (2023). From 2025 she is a Wallenberg Scholar.
Science communication
Dacke has been a panel member on the Swedish TV show Studio Natur (currently streaming on SVT Play) since 2010.{{Citation|last=Sweden|first=Sveriges Television AB, Stockholm|title=Studio natur|url=https://www.svtplay.se/studio-natur|language=sv|access-date=4 September 2019}}
In 2012, Dacke was named best science communicator in Sweden in the national competition Forskar Grand Prix (Science Grand Prix).{{Cite web|url=https://forskargrandprix.se/researchers-grand-prix-2012/winner2012/|title=Marie Dacke is nominated best science communicator in Sweden|website=Forskar Grand Prix|language=sv-SE|access-date=4 September 2019}}
In 2012, Dacke was one of the scientists to appear in a series about research and researchers produced by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and TV4.{{Cite web|url=https://strategiska.se/ssf-forskning-pa-tv/|title=SSF-forskning på TV|last=Pehrsson|first=Sofie|date=6 June 2012|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
In 2019, she gave the Royal Entomological Society's Verrall Lecture at the Natural History Museum, London, speaking about As the crow flies, and the beetle rolls: straight-line orientation from behaviour to neurons.{{cite web |title=2019 Verrall Lecture |url=https://www.royensoc.co.uk/verrall-lecture |website=royensoc.co.uk |publisher=Royal Entomological Society |accessdate=21 October 2020}}
Dacke has authored two books; Trädgårdsdjur - myllret och mångfalden som växterna älskar (Roos & Tegnér, {{ISBN|9789188953629}}) (co-authored with Låtta Skogh) in 2020, and Taggad att leva - igelkottens liv, historiska resa och hotande framtid (Roos & Tegnér, {{ISBN|9789189215368}}), in 2021.
External links
- [https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/marie-dacke Staff page at Lund University]
- [https://sverigesungaakademi.se/en/researcher/marie-dacke-2/ Personal page at Sveriges Unga Akademi]
References
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Category:Swedish women biologists