David N. Reznick

Leading research scientist studying adaptation in nature with implications as diverse as the evolution of senescence and menopause, commercial fisheries, and the evolution of placentas. Studied guppy populations in Trinidad as a model for experimental evolution, integrating lab and field studies of natural selection. Using parallel streams with gradients from high-diversity lowlands to low-diversity uplands, showed how differences in levels of predation are translated by selection into differences such as age at maturity, thus testing and validating important elements of theory. Research combines designed laboratory experiments, field experiments, evaluations of the dynamics of natural populations with mark-recapture methodologies, and comparative studies. Work has implications for the understanding of senescence, evolution of menopause, and other areas of life history biology. Has demonstrated that genetic differences in his study populations span all features of the life history plus morphology, behavior, and swimming performance. His book The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species (2010) was written to make Darwin's Origin of Species accessible to a general audience.