The Role of Vision in Cichlid Mate Choice and Speciation: Integration of Biology, Chemistry and Physics in Research and in the Classroom

主要科学学科的重大进展模糊了生物学、化学和物理学之间的界限。在此访问教授期间，Carleton博士将通过获得新的生物能力来建立她的化学和物理专业知识。通过获得大学水平的教学经验和建立跨学科的研究项目，她将从工业界过渡到学术界，在这个令人兴奋的科学界面工作。卡尔顿博士将开设一门新的物理导论课程，完全通过生物实例来教授物理概念。本课程将着重于与理解生物有机体最相关的物理概念，并且最有可能吸引生物学专业的学生。卡尔顿博士还将对非洲马拉维湖慈鲷的视觉系统进行研究。这些鱼经历了异常快速的辐射，这被认为是由性选择驱动的。虽然视觉交流在慈鲷择偶中起着关键作用，但人们对视觉信号的光谱特征（雄性颜色模式）或它们的接收（雌性视觉光谱敏感性）知之甚少。本研究的目的是将视觉能力、颜色模式和光环境相互联系起来，以评估交配选择在产生壮观的慈鲷多样性中所起的作用。

Significant advances in the primary scientific disciplines have blurred the boundaries between biology, chemistry, and physics. During this visiting professorship, Dr. Carleton will build on her chemical and physical expertise by gaining new biological capabilities. By acquiring college-level teaching experience and establishing an interdisciplinary research program, she will make the transition from industry to academia to work at this exciting scientific interface. Dr. Carleton will develop a new course in introductory physics, teaching physical concepts entirely through biological examples. The course will focus on physical concepts most relevant to understanding biological organisms and most likely to engage biology students. Dr. Carleton also will carry out research on the visual system of cichlid fishes from Lake Malawi, Africa. These fishes have undergone an extraordinarily rapid radiation, which is thought to have been driven by sexual selection. While visual communication plays a key role in cichlid mate choice, little is known about the spectral characteristics of the visual signals (male color patterns) or their reception (female visual spectral sensitivities). The goals of the research are to interrelate the visual capabilities, the color patterns, and the photic environment to assess what role mate choice has played in generating the spectacular diversity of cichlid fishes.