Richard D. Alexander is an Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Curator of Insects at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, USA. Prof. Alexander scientific pursuits integrate the fields of systematics

Systematics

Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...

, ecology

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

, evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

, natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and behaviour; the salient organisms in his research are equally wide-ranging, from the orthoptera

Orthoptera

Orthoptera is an order of insects with paurometabolous or incomplete metamorphosis, including the grasshoppers, crickets and locusts.Many insects in this order produce sound by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps...

ns (grasshoppers, katydids and crickets) and cicadidae (cicadas) to vertebrates: dogs, horses, primates, and, of course, humans.

Biography

Richard D. Alexander obtained an associate of arts degree from Blackburn College (Carlinville, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

) in 1948, a bachelor of science in education (biology) and a PhD from Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

 in 1956. Dr. Alexander taught for over 40 years two graduate courses in alternate fall semesters: evolutionary ecology

Evolutionary ecology

Evolutionary ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can be seen as an approach to the study of evolution that...

 and evolution and behaviour; during these semesters he dedicated all his time to prepare his lecture materials — fresh and up-to-date every year — which included many a time novel, provocative ideas from his own students and university colleagues; amongst which Prof. Donald W. Tinkle

Donald W. Tinkle

Donald Ward Tinkle was a prominent herpetologist, ecologist, and evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan until his illness and death at age 50...

, curator of herpetology at the UMMZ and evolutionary biologist, was very prominent until his death in 1980. His course lectures were perhaps the most popular in the schools of natural sciences and natural resources at the university and were often attended by other faculty members and visiting students including many from the social sciences (anthropology, geography, sociology, psychology, etcetera).

In 1974 he created a detailed model for a eusocial vertebrate, having no idea that a mammal with these characteristics actually existed. It turned out that his hypothetical eusocial rodent was a "perfect description" of the naked mole rat

Naked Mole Rat

The naked mole rat , also known as the sand puppy or desert mole rat, is a burrowing rodent native to parts of East Africa and the only species currently classified in the genus Heterocephalus...

 (Heterocephalus glaber).

Publications

Richard Alexander's publications relate to the evolution of behaviour and its bearing on human nature and have occupied a central place in his research at least since 1969 when he presented The search for an evolutionary philosophy of man in Australia. Now, that he is retired from the academy (only nominally, as he remains very active), he devotes most of his time to his horse farm, where he breeds, reins, trains and rides them. But even in so empirical a field he has managed to fully utilise his evolutionary philosophy; nowadays his lecture tours include meetings with professionally interested horse breeders and his most recent publications are devoted to that topic.

On humans

Books:

• Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle: U. Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-95641-0 1979.
• The Biology of Moral Systems. New York: Aldine De Gruyter. ISBN 0-202-01174-7 1987
• Natural Selection and Social Behavior. Recent Research and New Theory. New York: Chiron Press. with D. W. Tinkle (eds.). 1981

Articles:

• The search for an evolutionary philosophy of man. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne 84: 99-120. 1971
• The evolution of social behaviour. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 5:325-383. 1974
• Group selection, altruism, and the levels of organization of life. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9: 449—474. With G. Borgia. 1978
• Epigenetic rules and Darwinian algorithms: The adaptive study of learning and development. Ethology and Sociobiology 11:241-303. 1990
• How Did Humans Evolve? Reflections on the Uniquely Unique Species. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Special Publication 1:1-38. 1990
• Biological considerations in the analysis of morality. In: M. H. and D. V. Nitecki (eds.). Evolutionary Ethics. State University of New York Press, pp. 162–196. 1993

On horses

• Teaching Yourself to Train Your Horse. Woodlane Farm Books. ISBN 0-9712314-0-0 2001

Children's reading

• The Red Fox and Johnny Valentine’s Blue-Speckled Hound. Woodlane Farm Books. ISBN 0-9712314-2-7 2004
• Thumping on Trees. Woodlane Farm Books. ISBN 978-0-9712314-4-3

Honors and awards

• Newcomb Cleveland Prize
  Newcomb Cleveland Prize
  The Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is annually awarded to author of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of Science...
  
   from the American Association for the Advancement of Science
  American Association for the Advancement of Science
  The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
  
   (1961)
• Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
  Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
  The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Giraud Elliot, it was first awarded in 1917....
  
   from the National Academy of Sciences
  United States National Academy of Sciences
  The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
  
   (1971)
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1974)
• Amoco Foundation Good Teaching Award (1977)
• Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from The University of Michigan
  University of Michigan
  The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
  
  (1981)
• Russell Lectureship (1988)
• The University of Michigan LSA Senior Distinguished Lecturer (1994)
• Distinguished Animal Behaviorist, awarded by the Animal Behavior Society (2003)