Dr. Robert Eric Ricklefs is a distinguished American ecologist and ornithologist whose pioneering research has fundamentally shaped our understanding of avian ecology and evolutionary biology. Born on June 6, 1943, near Monterey, California, he cultivated his passion for biology through early mentorship and pursued formal training at Stanford University, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in 1963. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 under the guidance of W. John Smith, having initially worked with the renowned ecologist Robert H. MacArthur, focusing on avian growth and development. Dr. Ricklefs joined the faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1995, where he served as the Curators' Professor of Biology for 24 years before retiring in August 2019, leaving an enduring legacy at the institution.
Dr. Ricklefs' groundbreaking research has centered on the origin and maintenance of biodiversity, particularly examining life history traits, growth patterns, and evolutionary dynamics across diverse ecosystems. His extensive fieldwork spanned islands worldwide, including significant research in Antarctica in 1981 where he studied the growth and development of penguins and cormorants, demonstrating the profound impacts of environmental pressures on avian physiology. His seminal work on taxon cycles in the West Indies revealed non-synchronized phases of expansion and contraction in bird populations, potentially driven by evolutionary dynamics between pathogens and hosts, with avian malaria serving as a critical model system. Dr. Ricklefs' innovative application of phylogeographic methods and DNA-sequence-based approaches to island biogeography has provided crucial insights into how colonization and extinction shape island faunas over evolutionary time.
As a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2009, Dr. Ricklefs has significantly influenced ecological theory through his interdisciplinary approach connecting evolutionary biology, community ecology, and population dynamics. His research on the relationship between embryonic development and resistance to blood parasites has opened new avenues for understanding host-pathogen coevolution in avian systems. Dr. Ricklefs' leadership in the field is evidenced by numerous prestigious awards including the William Brewster Memorial Award, the Pacific Seabird Group's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Cooper Ornithological Society's Loye and Alden Miller Research Award. Despite his formal retirement, Dr. Ricklefs continues to contribute to ecological science through ongoing research collaborations and scholarly publications, maintaining his position as a Curators' Distinguished Professor while bridging theoretical ecology with empirical field studies.
