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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

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. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from Stanford University in 1963 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. His doctoral advisor was originally

Robert H. MacArthur Robert Helmer MacArthur (April 7, 1930 – November 1, 1972) was a Canadian-born American ecologist who made a major impact on many areas of community and population ecology. Early life and education MacArthur was born in Toronto, Ontario, ...

(prior to his move to Princeton University), but he finished his dissertation under W. John Smith. 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 A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, es, Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understa ...

in Panama before taking up a faculty position at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He was the 1982 recipient of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

'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. In 2003, he received the

Pacific Seabird Group The Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) is an international professional ornithological society based in the US, dedicated to the study and conservation of Pacific seabirds and their environment. The objectives of the Pacific Seabird Group are exclusively ...

's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on growth and development in seabirds.Pacific Seabirds Vol. 30
/ref> He was awarded the 2003

Margaret Morse Nice Medal The Margaret Morse Nice Medal is an ornithological award made annually by the Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS). It was established in 1997 and named in honour of ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974). The medal recipient is expected ...

by the

Wilson Ornithological Society The Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS) is an ornithology, ornithological organization that was formally established in 1886 as the Wilson Ornithological Chapter of the Agassiz Association. It is based at the Museum of Zoology, University of Michig ...

. He was the 2006 recipient of the

Cooper Ornithological Society The Cooper Ornithological Society (COS), formerly the Cooper Ornithological Club, was an American ornithological society. It was founded in 1893 in California and operated until 2016. Its name commemorated James Graham Cooper, an early California b ...

’s

Loye and Alden Miller Research Award The Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, now known as the AOS Miller Award, was established in 1993 by the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS) to recognize lifetime achievement in ornithological research. The namesakes were Loye H. Miller and his s ...

, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research.COS: Miller Awards

Research

During his career, he has made major contributions to the

island biogeography Insular biogeography or island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species richness and diversification of isolated natural communities. The theory was originally developed to explain the pattern of ...

, including testing

E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...

's Taxon Cycle Concept, His most-cited scientific paper examined ecological communities. Recent work has sought to rescale the concept of an

ecological community In ecology, a community is a group or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area at the same time, also known as a biocoenosis, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, ...

. He has made major contributions to life-history theory of birds, avian growth and development, 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. He has also published ''The Economy of Nature', Avian Growth and Development: Evolution Within the Altricial-precocial Spectrum'' and ''Aging, A Natural History.''

Awards

* 1982: William Brewster Memorial Award, American Ornithologists' Union * 2003: Lifetime Achievement Award,

* 2003:

* 2005:

Sewall Wright Award The Sewall Wright Award is given annually by the American Society of Naturalists to a "senior-level" and active investigator making fundamental contributions the conceptual unification of the biological sciences. The award was established in 1991 a ...

American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...

* 2006: Love and Alden Miller Research Award,

* 2009: Inducted member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

April 28, 2009. * 2011: Alfred Wallace Award, The International Biogeography Society * 2015:

Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology The Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology ( ca, Premi Ramon Margalef d'Ecologia) is a prize awarded annually by the Generalitat de Catalunya to recognize an exceptional scientific career or discovery in the field of ecology or other environmental scienc ...

* 2017: Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, American Society of Naturalists * 2018: Honorary degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Career

*Assistant Professor, Department of Biology,

, 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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, 1995-.

Personal life

Ricklefs is married to the botanist Susanne Renner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricklefs, Robert American ornithologists American ecologists Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1943 births Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology Fellows of the Ecological Society of America