Russell Lande facts for kids

Russell Scott Lande, born in 1951, is an American scientist. He studies how living things change over time (this is called an evolutionary biologist) and how they interact with their environment (an ecologist). He works as a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He is also a special member of important science groups like the Royal Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences.

Education and Career

Russell Lande studied at several top universities. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 1976 from Harvard University. His main teacher there was Richard Lewontin, a famous scientist.

After Harvard, he continued his research at the University of Wisconsin. Later, he worked at many well-known universities. These included the University of Chicago, the University of Oregon, and the University of California, San Diego. He also worked at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom.

In 2016, he became a special professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He continues his important research there.

What Russell Lande Studies

Russell Lande is famous for his work in understanding how living things change over time. He uses math and science to study how traits are passed down. This field is called quantitative genetics. He applies this to how species evolve in nature.

Evolutionary Biology Research

He created a special theory to explain how traits in animals and plants change. This happens because of two main things:

• Genetic drift: This is when random chance causes changes in genes over time.
• Natural selection: This is when traits that help an animal survive and reproduce become more common.

He also looked at how many different traits in an animal can change together. This helped scientists understand why some traits might not change much. It's like how the size of a bird's wings might affect the size of its body.

Lande used his ideas to study many exciting topics. These include:

• Sexual selection: How animals choose mates based on certain traits.
• Speciation: How new species form over time.
• Phenotypic plasticity: How an animal's traits can change based on its environment.
• Life history: How animals grow, reproduce, and live their lives.

Population and Conservation Studies

Besides evolution, Lande has done important work in other areas. He studies how animal populations grow and shrink. This is called population dynamics. He also works in conservation biology, which is about protecting plants and animals.

One of his famous ideas helped protect the Northern spotted owl. This owl was losing its home because of habitat fragmentation. This means its forest home was being broken into smaller pieces. Lande's models showed how this could lead to the owls disappearing.

He also helped improve the IUCN red list. This list tells us which animals and plants are in danger of dying out. Lande helped create better ways to decide if a species is truly at risk. This helps conservation groups know where to focus their efforts.

Lande is also an expert in how populations change randomly. He wrote a book about this with other scientists. He also developed ways to guess how many animals are in a group over time.

Important Concepts and Tools

Some of the ideas and tools he created are now used by many scientists. For example, he developed the idea of the selection gradient. This helps scientists measure how natural selection affects different traits. He also helped create the G matrix. This is a way to show how different traits are linked together genetically.

Honours and Awards

Russell Lande has received many important awards for his scientific work. These awards show how much his research has helped us understand life on Earth.

• Sewall Wright Award (1992)
• Guggenheim Fellowship (1996)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1997)
• Weldon Memorial Prize and Medal (2010)
• Balzan Prize (2011)
• Fellow of the Royal Society (2012)
• Elected member, United States National Academy of Sciences (2015)
• Outstanding Paper Award, The Wildlife Society (TWS) (2015)