2010 American Society of Naturalists Awards

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Previous articleNext article Free2010 American Society of Naturalists Awards E. O. Wilson Naturalist AwardMichael J. RyanMay BerenbaumMay BerenbaumChair, on behalf of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award Committee: David Reznick and David Hillis Search for more articles by this author Chair, on behalf of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award Committee: David Reznick and David HillisPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreMichael J. Ryan more than fulfills the criteria for the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award—that is, to make important contributions to understanding a particular group of organisms and to enhance appreciation of the ecology and evolution of those organisms through the written word. Equally adept in the field, in the laboratory, and in the classroom, Dr. Ryan has inspired students and colleagues alike with his investigations of sexual selection in a diversity of animal systems. His long‐term multidimensional studies of sexual and natural selection in the túngara frog Physalaemus pustulosos and its relatives seamlessly interweave a breathtaking span of disciplines, encompassing behavior, ecology, and evolution. His work includes a unique synthesis of the sensory abilities of the organism with the evolution of mating calls embedded because the abiotic and biotic dimensions of the environment influence sound transmission in the context of the organism's environment. Through time, this research program has continually incorporated new developments in evolutionary biology, not the least of which has been the use of phylogenetic relationships to infer cause‐and‐effect relationships between the properties of the receiver of a sexual signal and the way the signal has evolved. In addition to developing this extensive field/experimental system with the túngara frog, Dr. Ryan has successfully applied his insightful approach to the study of the evolution of sexual signals in livebearing fishes, developing another highly successful system for experimental studies of behavior and evolution that fully integrates field investigations with laboratory experiments. A consequence of his unique vision is that he has attracted and trained many talented students who have gone on to productive careers of their own, and, through his writings, he has inspired countless others, enriching their lives with his compelling accounts of the lives of these fascinating animals. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 177, Number 1January 2011 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/657900 © 2009 by The University of Chicago.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.