Robert Ricklefs
{{Short description|American ornithologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Robert Eric Ricklefs
| image = Robert Eric Ricklefs.jpg
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| caption = Robert Eric Ricklefs
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|6|6}}
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| workplaces = University of Missouri, St. Louis
Stanford University
| alma_mater = University of Pennsylvania
| thesis_title = The Significance of Growth Patterns in Birds
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302245426/
| thesis_year = 1967
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| awards = Sewall Wright Award (2005)
National Academy of Sciences (2008)
Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2015)
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| website = {{URL|http://www.umsl.edu/~ricklefsr/}}
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}}Robert Eric Ricklefs (born June 6, 1943) is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019.
Education
Born in 1943, he grew up near Monterey, California, where his interest in biology was fostered by a teacher.{{Cite web |date=2019-08-28 |title=Noted ecologist and ornithologist Bob Ricklefs aims to remain involved at UMSL even after retirement |url=https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2019/08/28/ricklefs-retirement/ |access-date=2022-09-28 |website=UMSL Daily}} He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University in 1963 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. His doctoral advisor was originally Robert H. MacArthur (prior to his move to Princeton University), but he finished his dissertation under W. John Smith.{{Cite journal |last=Gillespie |first=Rosemary G. |date=2011 |title=Interview with Robert E. Ricklefs, recipient of the 2011 Alfred Russel Wallace award |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1zb8z229 |journal=Frontiers of Biogeography |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |doi=10.21425/F5FBG12391|s2cid=83880583 |doi-access=free }} During his PhD, he studied avian growth and development, which he continued for much of his career. He completed a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama before taking up a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the 1982 recipient of the American Ornithologists' Union's William Brewster Memorial Award, the union's most prestigious award given annually for an exceptional body of work on birds of the Western Hemisphere.{{Cite journal |title=Brewster Award, 1982: Robert E. Ricklefs |url=https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/100/1/268/5187296 |access-date=2022-09-28 |journal=The Auk | year=1983 | volume=100 | page=268 |doi=10.1093/auk/100.1.268|url-access=subscription }} In 2003, he received the Pacific Seabird Group's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on growth and development in seabirds.[http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org/publications/PacificSeabirds/VOL_30_1_pgs_1-41.PDF Pacific Seabirds Vol. 30] He was awarded the 2003 Margaret Morse Nice Medal by the Wilson Ornithological Society.{{cite web|url= http://www.wilsonsociety.org/awards/nicemedal.html|archive-url= https://archive.today/20121209083324/http://www.wilsonsociety.org/awards/nicemedal.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 2012-12-09|title= Margaret Morse Nice Medal|access-date= 2012-04-09|publisher= Wilson Ornithological Society|date= 2010-05-29}} He was the 2006 recipient of the Cooper Ornithological Society’s Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research.[http://www.cooper.org/COS/COS_award_miller.html COS: Miller Awards] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814155154/http://www.cooper.org/COS/COS_award_miller.html |date=2007-08-14 }}
Research
During his career,{{GoogleScholar|0Gx2tTMAAAAJ}} he has made major contributions to the island biogeography, including testing E. O. Wilson's Taxon Cycle Concept,{{cite journal | last1 = Ricklefs | first1 = Robert. E. | last2 = Cox | first2 = George W. | year = 1972 | title = Taxon Cycles in the West Indian Avifauna | journal = The American Naturalist | volume = 106 | issue = 948 | pages = 195–219 | jstor = 2459928 | doi=10.1086/282762| bibcode = 1972ANat..106..195R | s2cid = 84412686 }} His most-cited scientific paper examined ecological communities.{{Cite journal | last1 = Ricklefs | first1 = R. E. | author-link = Robert Ricklefs| title = Community Diversity: Relative Roles of Local and Regional Processes | doi = 10.1126/science.235.4785.167 | journal = Science | volume = 235 | issue = 4785 | pages = 167–171 | year = 1987 | pmid = 17778629| bibcode = 1987Sci...235..167R | s2cid = 2792273 }} Recent work has sought to rescale the concept of an ecological community.{{Cite journal
| last1 = Ricklefs | first1 = R. E.
| author-link = Robert Ricklefs
| title = Disintegration of the Ecological Community
| doi = 10.1086/593002
| journal = The American Naturalist
| volume = 172
| issue = 6
| pages = 741–750
| year = 2008
| pmid = 18954264
| bibcode = 2008ANat..172..741R
| s2cid = 17464820
}} He has made major contributions to life-history theory of birds, avian growth and development,{{Cite journal |last=Ricklefs |first=Robert E. |date=November 1967 |title=A Graphical Method of Fitting Equations to Growth Curves |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.2307/1934545 |journal=Ecology |language=en |volume=48 |issue=6 |pages=978–983 |doi=10.2307/1934545|jstor=1934545 |bibcode=1967Ecol...48..978R |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Ricklefs |first=Robert E. |title=Patterns of Growth in Birds |date=2008-04-03 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1968.tb00058.x |journal=Ibis |language=en |volume=110 |issue=4 |pages=419–451 |doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1968.tb00058.x|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |title=Weight Recession in Nestling Birds |journal=The Auk |doi=10.2307/4083621| jstor=4083621 | last1=Ricklefs | first1=Robert E. | year=1968 | volume=85 | issue=1 | pages=30–35 | doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last=Ricklefs |first=Robert E. |title=Growth Rates of Birds in the Humid New World Tropics |date=2008-04-03 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1976.tb03065.x |journal=Ibis |language=en |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=179–207 |doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1976.tb03065.x|url-access=subscription }} tropical ecology, and avian disease research. His original method for avian growth rate estimation continues to be used today though modifications have been proposed. His textbook Ecology, first published in 1973, continues to be updated and used in university courses.{{cite book |author1=Ricklefs, Robert E. |author2=Miller, Gary L. |title=Ecology |publisher=Freeman |location=San Francisco |year=2000 |isbn=0-7167-2829-X }} He has also published The Economy of Nature{{cite book|title=Amazon.com: The Economy of Nature (9780716786979): Robert E. Ricklefs: Books|isbn = 978-0716786979|last1 = Ricklefs|first1 = Robert E.|date = 2008-12-11| publisher=Macmillan }}, Avian Growth and Development: Evolution Within the Altricial-precocial Spectrum{{Cite book |last1=Starck |first1=J. Matthias |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0HB7Mq4lOYC&dq=avian+growth+rates+ricklefs&pg=PR15 |title=Avian Growth and Development: Evolution Within the Altricial-precocial Spectrum |last2=Ricklefs |first2=Robert E. |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-510608-4 |language=en}} and Aging, A Natural History.{{Cite book |last=Ricklefs |first=Robert E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31969925 |title=Aging : a natural history |date=1995 |publisher=Scientific American Library |others=Caleb Finch |isbn=0-7167-5056-2 |location=New York |oclc=31969925}}
Awards
- 1982: William Brewster Memorial Award, American Ornithologists' Union
- 2003: Lifetime Achievement Award, Pacific Seabird Group
- 2003: Margaret Morse Nice Medal, Wilson Ornithological Society
- 2005: Sewall Wright Award, American Society of Naturalists{{Cite journal |last=Ricklefs |first=Robert E. |date=2008-12-01 |title=Disintegration of the Ecological Community |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/593002 |journal=The American Naturalist |volume=172 |issue=6 |pages=741–750 |doi=10.1086/593002 |pmid=18954264 |bibcode=2008ANat..172..741R |s2cid=17464820 |issn=0003-0147|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Turelli |first=Michael |date=2006-01-01 |title=2005 Sewall Wright Award: Robert E. Ricklefs |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/498280 |journal=The American Naturalist |volume=167 |issue=1 |pages=i |doi=10.1086/498280 |pmid=17209245 |s2cid=84755619 |issn=0003-0147|url-access=subscription }}
- 2006: Love and Alden Miller Research Award, Cooper Ornithological Society
- 2009: Inducted member of the National Academy of Sciences April 28, 2009.{{Cite journal
| last1 = Viegas | first1 = J.
| doi = 10.1073/pnas.1213178109
| title = Profile of Robert Ricklefs
| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
| year = 2012
| pmid = 22908302
| pmc =3458327
| bibcode = 2012PNAS..10915075V
| volume=109
| issue=38
| pages=15075–15077
| doi-access = free
- 2010: Honorary doctorate from Aarhus University, Denmark {{cite web|url=https://auhist.au.dk/en/haedersbevisninger/honorary-doctors-appointed-by-aarhus-university |title=Honorary Doctors Appointed by Aarhus University }}
- 2010: Honorary doctorate from the University of Burgundy, France {{cite web|title=Le docteur honoris causa de l'université de Bourgogne a été décerné 37 fois |url=https://honoris-causa.geobib.fr/etablissement/Q287072-universite-de-Bourgogne }}
- 2010: Honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium)
- 2011: Alfred Wallace Award, The International Biogeography Society
- 2015: Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology{{Cite web|url=https://presidencia.gencat.cat/en/detalls/Article/2015-Robert-E.-Ricklefs|title = 2015 Robert e. Ricklefs}}
- 2017: Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, American Society of Naturalists{{Cite journal |date=2017-05-01 |title=Honorary Lifetime Membership Award: Robert Ricklefs |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691357 |journal=The American Naturalist |volume=189 |issue=5 |pages=iii |doi=10.1086/691357 |pmid=28410020 |bibcode=2017ANat..189R...3. |issn=0003-0147|url-access=subscription }}
- 2018: Honorary degree from the University of Chicago{{cite web|url=https://convocation.uchicago.edu/traditions/honorary-degree-recipients/past-honorary-degree-recipients/ |title=Past Honorary Degree Recipients }}
Career
- Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 1968-1972
- Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 1972-1978
- Professor, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 1978-1995
- Curators’ Professor, Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1995-2019.{{cite web|url=http://www.umsl.edu/~ricklefsr/|title=Robert E}}
Personal life
Ricklefs is married to the botanist Susanne Renner.
References
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{{Presidents of the American Society of Naturalists}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American ornithologists
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology