Duncan Irschick

Duncan Irschick (born 1969 in San Francisco, California) is an evolutionary ecologist and functional morphologist in the field of animal athletics, more specifically known as animal performance. He has worked on many kinds of animal species, including reptiles and amphibians, rodents, ungulates, spiders, and humans. He was a faculty member at Tulane University for five years (2001–2006) before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006.

He earned his B.S. in Zoology from the University of California at Davis in 1991. He earned his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1996 with Jonathan Losos and Allan Larson as his advisers. He then went on to postdoctoral research with Bruce Jayne at the University of Cincinnati and Robert Full at the University of California at Berkeley. During this period, he expanded his research to functional themes, including studies of kinetics, and kinematics.

Duncan Irschick is most well known for his work on gecko adhesion, animal locomotion in natural settings, rapid evolution^[1] of morphology and function, and sexual selection.^[2][3] As an undergraduate, he along with several colleagues, conducted the first test of how much force a gecko toepad could produce. His recorded value of 20 Newtons of force for two front limbs^[4] for a Tokay gecko launched a large body of research on bioadhesion and synthetic production of gecko setae, which has captured significant attention in the public eye.^[5]

During his Ph.D., he was among the first to develop conceptual and empirical video technology methods for accurately measuring how fast animals moved in complex natural environments,^[6] which was a harbinger of an emerging naturalistic approach to animal locomotion. In 2004, he, along with several other colleagues, completed the first study showing that rapid evolution (36 years) of a body part (a cecal valve of the intestinal tract in Croatian squamates can occur, apparently due to invasion of a novel island habitat.^[7] This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, has been presented as some of the strongest evidence for evolution in modern times.^[8][9] Finally, he has recently worked on human performance, especially the biomechanics of hammering, which has also earned significant attention in the public eye.^[10]

Because of these contributions, and their wide coverage and acclaim in the popular media^[11][12] and in scientific books,^[13][14] he is widely viewed as an influential and leading figure in the fields of evolutionary ecology and functional morphology.

Duncan Irschick currently acts as the Executive Editor for the journal Functional Ecology (journal), and as an associate editor for The Quarterly Review of Biology. He has served on several other editorial boards as a faculty member. His work has been widely featured in the media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Independent UK, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel. He has been named as the Hilgendorf lecturer for the University of Tubingen in 2010, and as the OCIB lecturer for the University of Ottawa in 2008. He has been awarded several grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Publications (selected)

Irschick, D. J., Austin, C. C., Petren, K., Fisher, R. N., Losos, J. B., Ellers, O. 1996. A comparative analysis of clinging ability among pad-bearing lizards. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 59:21-35

Irschick, D. J., Losos, J. B. 1998. A comparative analysis of the ecological significance of locomotor performance in Caribbean Anolis lizards. Evolution 52:219-226.

Irschick, D. J., VanHooydonck, B., Herrel, A., Androsceu, A. 2003. Effects of loading and size on maximum power output and kinematics in geckos. Journal of Experimental Biology. 206:3923-3934.

Irschick, D. J., Herrel, A., Vanhooydonck, B., Van Damme, R. 2007. A functional approach to sexual selection. Functional Ecology. 21:621-626.

Ramos, M., Irschick, D. J., Christenson, T. 2004. Overcoming an evolutionary conflict: Removal of a reproductive organ greatly enhances locomotor performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101:4883-4887.

Herrel, A., Huyghe, K., Vanhooydonck, B., Backeljau, T., Breugelmans, K., Grbac, I., Van Damme, R., Irschick, D. J. 2008. Rapid large scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with the exploitation of a novel dietary resource in the lizard Podarcis sicula. Proc. Nat Acad. Sci. 105:4792-4795

References

1. ^ A piece written by Olivia Judson, Science Writer, on July 22, 2008 in the New York Times, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/a-natural-selection/
2. ^ Ramos, M., Irschick, D. J., Christenson, T. 2004. Overcoming an evolutionary conflict: Removal of a reproductive organ greatly enhances locomotor performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101:4883-4887
3. ^ Piersma, T., van Gils, J.A. 2010. The flexible phenotype. Towards a body-centred integration of physiology, ecology and behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford ISBN 0-199-597243
4. ^ Irschick, D. J., Austin, C. C., Petren, K., Fisher, R. N., Losos, J. B., Ellers, O. 1996. A comparative analysis of clinging ability among pad-bearing lizards. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 59:21-35
5. ^ Discovery Channel Cable Show about Gecko Adhesion, which includes some of Duncan Irschick's work, http://science.discovery.com/videos/weird-connections-the-sticky-gecko.html
6. ^ Irschick, D. J., Losos, J. B. 1998. A comparative analysis of the ecological significance of locomotor performance in Caribbean Anolis lizards. Evolution 52:219-226.
7. ^ Herrel, A., Huyghe, K., Vanhooydonck, B., Backeljau, T., Breugelmans, K., Grbac, I., Van Damme, R., Irschick, D. J. 2008. Rapid large scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with the exploitation of a novel dietary resource in the lizard Podarcis sicula. Proc. Nat Acad. Sci. 105:4792-4795
8. ^ Richard Dawkins. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Free Press (United States), Transworld (United Kingdom and Commonwealth). 2009. ISBN 0-593-06173-X
9. ^ Zimmer, Carl The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution(2009) ISBN 0981519474
10. ^ A sample news article on his work on human hammering, which he notes in other outlets to be preliminary, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529477,00.html
11. ^ An article from the Toronto Star on his research on lizard jumping, published on February 15, 2009, http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/587818
12. ^ An article in National Geographic News on rapid evolution of lizards on islands, published on April 21, 2008, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080421-lizard-evolution.html
13. ^ Richard Dawkins. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Free Press (United States), Transworld (United Kingdom and Commonwealth). 2009. ISBN 0-593-06173-X
14. ^ Zimmer, Carl The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution(2009) ISBN 0981519474

External links

• Official web page

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Date of birth	1969
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