| Awards and Outreach | -> | ABS Keynote/Fellow Lecutres 2000 |
Dr. Robert Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, will deliver the Keynote address at the 37th annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society, which is sponsored by Morehouse College and Zoo Atlanta. Dr. Trivers, well known for his work on the evolution of social behavior, will present a talk titled The evolutionary logic of self-deception.
Dr. Trivers received his bachelors and PhD from Harvard University. He has been on the faculty at Harvard, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Rutgers University. Dr. Trivers is currently Distinguished Research Fellow in Genetics and the Law, at Arizona State Law School. He has authored numerous scholarly articles, and he has written books including a text on social evolution, and one in progress reporting findings from his latest research on Jamaican children.
In the 1970's Dr. Trivers authored seminal theoretical papers regarding social evolution. He presented an argument about how altruistic behavior (behavior which apparently decreases the actorÕs reproductive success or survival) could evolve. He also described parent offspring conflict. That is, he explained that the interests of parents and their offspring do not continually coincide. Offspring should be adapted to behave in ways that get them the highest possible level of care from their parents, but parents do not always benefit from providing such care. This conflict is clearly seen in the case of weaning in mammals. These contributions, and others, changed the way many researchers approached their study organisms.
Dr. Trivers' most recent research involves the study of asymmetry. Many scientists have recently looked at asymmetry of morphological features (for example the length of the right wing of a bird compared to the length of the left wing), which may reflect developmental errors or variation. The correlation of asymmetry with other features of the organism, including health, attractiveness to mates, and reproductive ability, has led to new insights. Dr. Trivers' work with Jamaican school children represents the most detailed set of body measurements on symmetry available for any group of human beings anywhere in the world. Since these measurements are on children (between the ages of 6 and 11) they are especially valuable because the children can be followed throughout their lives. He is especially interested in the health of the children, their long-term growth and development and the social behavior they display.