Robert D. Martin
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Robert D. Martin (born 1942) is a British-born biological anthropologist who is currently an Emeritus Curator at
The Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
in Chicago, Illinois. He is also an adjunct professor at
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 ...
,
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
, and
University of Illinois Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...
. His research spans the fields of anthropology, evolutionary biology and human reproductive biology. Additionally, he writes a blog on human reproduction for
Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...
.


Early life and education

Martin was born in 1942 in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, where he also grew up. He studied
zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
at
Worcester College Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...
at
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
and also earned his PhD from there in 1967. His PhD project (1964-67) on the behavior and evolution of
treeshrew The treeshrews (or tree shrews or banxrings) are small mammals native to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They make up the entire order Scandentia, which split into two families: the Tupaiidae (19 species, "ordinary" treeshrews) ...
s (Tupaiidae) was based on research with
Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded ...
and
Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (; 15 June 1928 – 2 June 2018) was an Austrian ethologist in the field of human ethology. In authoring the book which bears that title, he applied ethology to humans by studying them in a perspective more common to vol ...
(
Max-Planck-Institut The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
, Seewiesen), supervised by
Nikolaas Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the or ...
(
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
). Treeshrews were, at the time, widely thought to be the most primitive living primates. Through his study on their maternal behavior and later through studies of their brains, he concluded in his PhD thesis that treeshrews are not close relatives of primates.


Career

Immediately after his PhD, Martin received a NATO postdoctoral grant (1967–69) to work with J.J. Petter and A. Petter-Rousseaux (
Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
, Brunoy) to study the reproductive biology of
mouse lemur The mouse lemurs are nocturnal lemurs of the genus ''Microcebus''. Like all lemurs, mouse lemurs are native to Madagascar. Mouse lemurs have a combined head, body and tail length of less than , making them the smallest primates (the smallest spe ...
s while continuing his work on primate morphology. Afterwards, he received a
lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...
position in biological anthropology at
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
(1969–74), where he continued his research on the reproduction of mouse lemurs and comparative work on morphology of the
skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...
,
brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...
,
postcranial skeleton Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated sk ...
and
reproductive system The reproductive system of an organism, also known as the genital system, is the biological system made up of all the anatomical organs involved in sexual reproduction. Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are als ...
in primates. In 1974, Martin became a senior research fellow at the Wellcome Laboratories at the
Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...
, where he coordinated research on mammalian reproduction. In 1975, he spent a semester at
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
as
visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...
in the Department of Anthropology. Martin then returned to
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
, first as
reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
(1978–82) and then as
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
(1982–86) in biological anthropology, during which his research became focused on
allometric scaling Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in ''On Growth and Form'' and by Julian Huxley in 1932. Overview Allo ...
, particularly regarding the brain. In 1986, he became the director and professor of the Anthropological Institute at the
University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
in Switzerland, where he started a range of research activities. In 2001, Martin accepted an appointment at
The Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
, first as vice president and then as provost for Academic Affairs while holding the position as
curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
in the Department of Anthropology. In 2006, he stepped down from his administrative role and became the A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biology Anthropology. He became
emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
curator at the end of 2013.


Research

Martin's research uses a wide range of approaches to identify reliable general principles in
human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...
. In order to interpret human origins, he has conducted comprehensive comparisons across
primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
with studies that cover anatomy of both living and fossil representatives, ecology, behaviour, reproduction and
molecular evolution Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genetics ...
. Throughout his research, the study of size relationships (allometric scaling or
allometry Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in ''On Growth and Form'' and by Julian Huxley in 1932. Overview Allom ...
) has been a prevalent theme. His synthetic approach to primate evolution has revealed a number of important relationships. This was exemplified in a study by Martin and colleagues on times of divergence in the primate tree, notably the split between humans and chimpanzees. Because of major gaps in the fossil record, estimation of divergence times from earliest known fossil relatives can be misleading. So they used statistical analyses of living and fossil primates in combination with an evolutionary tree based on DNA evidence, which revealed that divergence times within the primate tree are generally substantially earlier than has often been claimed. Specifically, the divergence between humans and chimpanzees — which was to be around 5 million years ago — appears to be closer to 8 million years ago. Another example is provided by the connection between
brain size The size of the brain is a frequent topic of study within the fields of anatomy, biological anthropology, animal science and evolution. Brain size is sometimes measured by weight and sometimes by volume (via MRI scans or by skull volume). Neur ...
and
reproductive biology Reproductive biology includes both sexual and asexual reproduction. Reproductive biology includes a wide number of fields: * Reproductive systems * Endocrinology * Sexual development (Puberty) * Sexual maturity * Reproduction * Fertility Human ...
. By examining these features together, Martin and colleagues inferred that maternal energy resources played a vital part in the evolution of the brain. The resulting "Maternal Energy Hypothesis" is particularly relevant to interpreting the evolution of the very large brain of humans.Martin, R.D. & Isler, K. 2010. The maternal energy hypothesis of brain evolution: An update. pp. 15-35 in: ''The Human Brain Evolving: Paleoneurological Studies in Honor of Ralph L. Holloway'' (eds. Broadfield, D., Yuan, M., Schick, K. & Toth, N.) Stone Age Institute Press: Bloomington, Indiana. Martin has over 300 publications, including peer-reviewed papers, books, book chapters, and book translations. Two major book publications include ''Primate Origins and Evolution'' (1990) and ''How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction'' (2013). Additionally, he has translated numerous publications from both French and German to English. As a curator, he has also overseen a number of exhibits at The Field Museum, including ''Images of the Afterlife'' and ''"Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux''.


Awards and recognition

* Thomas Henry Huxley Award from the Zoological Society of London in 1968 for Ph.D. thesis completed in 1967. * Invited to give the 52nd James Arthur Lecture in 1982 on the Evolution of the Human Brain, American Museum of Natural History, New York. * Invited to give the 11th Curl Lecture in Anthropology in 1983 by the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). * Invited to give the Osman Hill Memorial Lecture in Primatology (with Memorial Medal) in 1990 by the Primate Society (Great Britain).. * Award for Excellence in the category "Best Specialist Reference Work 1992" awarded in 1993 by the Literati Club (UK) for The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (shared with S.Bunney, J.S.Jones, and D.R.Pilbeam). * D.Sc. degree awarded by the University of Oxford in 1995. * Invited to give the Ernst Mayr Lecture in 2003 by the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. * Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Section on Anthropology in 2004. * Distinguished Primatologist Award from the Midwest Primate Interest Group, USA.


References


External links


Robert Martin's personal website

Robert Martin's Blog in Psychology Today
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Robert D. 1942 births Living people British evolutionary biologists University of Chicago faculty