Kentucky Academy of Science
Larry D. Martin was born in the small town of Bartlett in the Nebraska Sandhills, where for a brief time he was employed as a cowboy. He received degrees in Zoology and Geology at the University of Nebraska and worked closely with the Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, C. Bertrand Schultz. Schultz and Martin discovered a new group of saber-toothed carnivores, the Barbourofelinae. Martin received a Ph.D. in Systematics and Ecology at the University of Kansas under the guidance of Craig Black and after Black left Kansas to become director of the Lubbock Natural History Museum, Martin replaced him and is now Senior Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. Martin also holds Courtesy appointments in Geology; East Asian Studies, and is a Courtesy Senior Scientist in the Kansas State Geological Survey at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.
Martin has led expeditions that have collected over 200,000 fossil vertebrates ranging in age from Carboniferous to Pleistocene, and in size from a sixty-foot sauropod dinosaur to a tiny shrew. He has worked extensively in the American West as well as in the Mesozoic of China and Germany. He was one of the discoverers of the American Cheetah, Miracinonyx, and the earliest beaked bird, Confusciusornis. He is one of the world's leading authorities on saber-toothed carnivores, fossil rodents, birds from the age of dinosaurs, and the fossil history of disease. He has co-authored three books, Paleopathology: Disease in the Fossil Record; Avian Osteology; and A Triceratops Hunt in Pioneer Wyoming. He has published nearly 400 scientific publications including seventeen in the distinguished journals, Science and Nature, on a wide range of topics, including the mechanisms of extinction, and the evolution of new animal adaptive types. His research has been featured in a number of television programs, magazine articles, and the cover of the New York Times.
In recent years, he has worked closely with Chinese colleagues on
the early adaptive radiation of birds, and has been one of the chief
opponents to the hypothesis that modern birds are "living dinosaurs."
Dr. Luis M. Chiappe is Director of the Dinosaur Institute and Curator of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Dr. Chiappe has conducted extensive research on the evolution of dinosaurs, particularly the origin and early evolution of birds. For many years, he has explored the desolate regions of Patagonia, Central Asia, and western North America. His discovery of thousands of dinosaur eggs and babies in a remote corner of Patagonia is one of the most covered paleontological stories of the last few years. His extensive research has been published in nearly 100 research articles and books as well as in magazines such as National Geographic, Natural History, and Scientific American. He is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Alexander Humboldt Foundation, an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California, and a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
Title of presentation: “The Closest Relatives of Birds.”
I am a tenured Professor in the Biology Department at Murray State University and I teach courses in Evolution and Ecology. Primary research is in mammalian paleobiology, including the evolution of small mammal communities and the systematics and evolution of rodents. Fieldwork in the Meade Basin of southwestern Kansas and the Baza Basin of southeastern Spain. My work has most recently been supported by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation. I have published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers.
I recently published a book titled "Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts and Transitions Through Time" with Jones & Bartlett. The book includes two sections. The first is a primer of evolutionary biology and the second provides examples of transitions between animal groups at all geographic and temporal scales. It was written in part to provide evidence of transitions in the fossil record to support the evolutionary model in the evolution/creationism debate.
Robert
W. CohnRobert W. Cohn is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Distinguished University Scholar, University of Louisville and Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He joined UofL in 1989. He holds the PhD in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, and B.A., B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Kansas. From 1978 to 1989 he was Member of the Technical Staff at Texas Instruments where he studied solid state acoustic devices for radio and radar receivers and the development of micromechanical light modulators referred to as DLP (digital light processing.) Today DLP (which is used in conference room and movie theater projectors) is one of TI’s most widely sold products. In 1996 he established and since then has directed the ElectroOptics Research Institute and Nanotechnology Center, a collaboration of 15 UofL and 6 University of Kentucky faculty. He frequently participates in panel reviews for National Science Foundation including as member of the site visiting team to the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) and as panel member of the 2005 Council of Visitors Review of the Electrical and Communications Systems (ECS) Division of NSF. His current research interests include shaping laser beams for the display of images, trapping and guiding of micron-scale particles such as cells using laser beams, and the development of simple methods of fabricating nanometer scale structures. An example of what is meant by ease and simplicity of Dr. Cohn’s nanofabrication process is that one can brush liquid plastics onto a rough surface by hand and within a few seconds fiber bridges of 50 nanometer diameter will form through a process known as self-assembly. Prof. Cohn has published 40 papers in refereed journals, holds 6 patents and has been principal investigator on over 30 grants.
Dr.
James K. RowlettDr. James K. Rowlett received his undergraduate degree from Morehead State University (1988), where he first obtained research experience under the guidance of Dr. Bruce A. Mattingly. In 1993, he received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kentucky under the mentorship of Dr. Michael T. Bardo. Dr. Rowlett then joined the laboratory of Dr. William L. Woolverton at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he received training in primate models of stimulant and anxiolytic abuse. In 1997, Dr. Rowlett moved to the New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC) as an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Under the mentorship of Dr. Roger D. Spealman, he initiated research programs on anxiolytic, stimulant, and polydrug abuse. Currently, Dr. Rowlett is an Assistant Professor and Supervisor of the Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory in the Division of Behavioral Biology at NEPRC, as well as an Associate Scientist in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program of the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Rowlett is the author or co-author of more than 75 articles, reviews, and book chapters on research related to drug abuse and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Guillermo
W. Rougier
Dr. is a prolific and accomplished scientist, who enjoys an international
reputation and is recognized as one of the leaders of his field of specialty:
early mammalian evolution. Dr. Rougier stems from a background with
fluent international contacts, which is still a prominent feature of
his current scientific programs. Dr. Rougier received his Ph.D. in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, his native country, moved to the prestigious University
of Tubingen in Germany as a postdoc, from which he relocated to the
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, widely considered
the top-most institution in Paleontology, his field of research.
Since 1998, after a 4-year postdoctoral stay at AMNH, Dr. Rougier became a faculty in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at the University of Louisville. During his postdoctoral time in New York, he became involved in the yearly expeditions to Mongolia organized by the AMNH, which have been widely publicized and are one of the iconographic paleontological enterprises for the general public. These expeditions and Dr. Rougier’s participation in them have been covered by the BBC, Nova for PBS, National Geographic, and most recently (2005) by NBC.
Dr. Rougier has also fostered links with his native country, Argentina, and since 2001, he has been leading an international project dedicated to the research and exploration of early mammalian fossils and their associated fauna in South America. Extensive field work is one of the singular characteristics of Dr. Rougier’s research agenda. As an average in the past 10 years, he has spent 3 months per year participating in paleontological expeditions, either in Central Asia or in South America.
Dr. Rougier's research interests are broad and varied and his research has been published in some of the top journals in his field. He has published on a variety of fossil vertebrates ranging from turtles, dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals. His expertise is grounded in the traditions of comparative anatomy and systematic theory. He employs modern systematic methodology and is well versed in the theoretical underpinnings of his craft.
With an M.A. in Higher Education Administration and a strong background
in writing and proposal development, Beverly Daly joined the University
of Louisville’s Office of Sponsored Programs Development in 2002.
She assists researchers from the Schools of Medicine, Public Health,
Nursing, Dentistry, and Social Work in finding and obtaining funding
for their biomedical research projects. Most recently she was tasked
with managing UofL’s transition to the new Grants.gov electronic
proposal system. Ms. Daly devised new internal processes necessary for
a successful conversion and conducted training workshops for more than
200 faculty and staff.