Elizabeth Adkins-Regan facts for kids

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan, born in July 1945, is an American scientist. She studies how hormones and the brain affect animal behavior. This field is called neuroendocrinology. She is especially known for her work on how hormones control how birds reproduce and develop their male or female traits. Dr. Adkins-Regan is now a retired professor at Cornell University.

Becoming a Scientist

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan started her journey in science by studying psychology. She earned her first degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1967. She then went on to get her Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. For her Ph.D., she studied how hormones control the mating behavior of Japanese quail. Her teacher was a famous scientist named Norman T. Adler.

Early Teaching Career

After finishing her studies, Dr. Adkins-Regan taught at a few universities. She was an assistant professor at Bucknell University from 1972 to 1974. Then, she taught at the State University of New York College at Cortland from 1974 to 1975.

Joining Cornell University

In 1975, Dr. Adkins-Regan joined Cornell University. She became an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. She became an associate professor in 1981 and a full professor in 1988. During her time at Cornell, she also received a special award called the Fulbright Research Scholar Award in 1986. This allowed her to study in France, where she researched how pigs develop their male or female behaviors.

Important Book and Leadership

In 2005, Dr. Adkins-Regan wrote an important book called Hormones and Animal Social Behavior. This book brought together a lot of information about how hormones like steroids and peptides affect how animals interact. She also led the journal Hormones and Behavior as its editor from 2008 to 2011. Later, she was the President of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology from 2015 to 2017.

Research on Animal Behavior

Dr. Adkins-Regan's research mainly focuses on how hormones and the brain control behavior in animals, especially birds.

Sexual Development in Birds

In her early work, she used Japanese quail to study how male and female traits develop. Birds have a different system for determining sex than mammals. It's called the ZW sex determination system. She found that in quail, female-like reproductive behavior could be started in both male and female birds if they were given estrogen.

She also showed that if male quail embryos were treated with estrogen, they would not show typical male courtship behavior when they grew up, even if they were later given testosterone. These findings helped scientists understand that in birds, a hormone called estradiol (which females produce) is very important for how male and female behaviors develop.

Expanding Research to Other Birds

In the 1980s, her research grew to include zebra finches. These birds are socially monogamous, meaning they usually have one partner for life. She did similar experiments with zebra finches, showing how hormones affect the development of different behaviors in male and female songbirds.

Later Research on Social Behaviors

Later in her career, Dr. Adkins-Regan looked at a wider range of social behaviors in birds. This included how birds choose their mates, form pairs, mate, care for their young, and show aggression. In 2016, she also published research showing that King quail, which are related to Japanese quail, also form strong, lasting pair bonds.

Personal Life

Since 1980, Dr. Adkins-Regan has been married to Dennis T. Regan, who is a social psychologist at Cornell University.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Adkins-Regan has received many awards for her important work:

• Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, 2019
• Exemplar Award, Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, 2017
• Howard Bern Award, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), 2016
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), elected 1984
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, elected 1998
• Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, elected 1991
• American Fulbright Research Scholar Award, 1986-1987
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1967-1971