Robert L. “Bob” Wallace, Ph.D., professor emeritus of biology and the Patricia and Philip McCullough 1969 Professor in Biology emeritus, has been active in research and scholarly publications since his retirement in 2019.
“Dr. Bob” has dedicated most of his career to the study of rotifers, microscopic, cylindrical animals about the size of the dot over the letter “i.”
His activities in 2022 and 2023 include:
- Second year of a four-year National Science Foundation Grant of $112,000: Collaborative Research: Life cycle evolution in Rotifera: The influence of sexual reproduction on contemporary systematics of Monogononta. This research is a collaborative effort with colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the University of Texas El Paso. Those institutions have received their own support for the project.
- “Does ‘form follow function’ in the rotiferan genus Keratella: a meta-synthesis,” oral presentation at the 16th International Rotifer Symposium (IRS-16) in Zagreb, Croatia, in September 2022. Manuscript submitted with Samara Kusztyb ’22 of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Warren Januszkiewicz ’24 of Ripon, Wisconsin, and others.
- “The undiscovered country: 10 grand challenges in rotifer biology,” oral presentation with colleagues; and “A meta-synthesis of the biogeographical distribution of rotifera in Africa,” poster presentation with colleagues, both at IRS-16.
- “Social parasitism and cryptic aggressive mimicry in a rotifer?” poster presentation with colleagues at meetings of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Austin, Texas, Jan. 3-7, 2023.
- Co-author of: