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Alan Hastings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan Hastings
Born
United States
Alma materCornell University
AwardsFellow of the National Academy of Sciences
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Robert H. MacArthur Award
Scientific career
FieldsEcology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Davis
Doctoral advisorSimon A. Levin

Alan Matthew Hastings is a mathematical ecologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis. In 2005 he became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2006 he won the Robert H. MacArthur Award.[1]

In 2008, he founded the journal Theoretical Ecology, in which he currently holds the position of editor in chief. Formerly, he was co-editor in chief of the Journal of Mathematical Biology. His research expands through many areas in theoretical ecology including spatial ecology, biological invasions, structured populations, and model fitting.[2]

Academic career

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Alan Hastings published his first paper, dealing with eliminating viability differences in computing recombination percentages,[3] in 1972 at the age of 19. This was the beginning of an extensive career in theoretical and mathematical ecology, with Alan credited for another 333 publications since. He received his Bachelors of Science in mathematics from Cornell University the following year, and he would follow this up with a Masters in Applied Mathematics from Cornell in 1975. Alan finished his formal education with a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics with minors in Population Ecology and Population Genetics from Cornell in 1977, with his dissertation being done on population biology modeling. He began a career in education in 1977 at Washington State University, where he worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics for two years. In 1979, he began working as an assistant professor for the University of California, Davis, where he has been teaching ever since. Alan started off in the Department of Mathematics, and continued there between 1979 and 1989, becoming an associate Professor in 1982, and a fully fledged Professor in 1985. In 1983, he also began working in the Department of Environmental Science, where he worked until 2019 when he became a distinguished Professor Emeritus.[4] As of 2022 Hastings is an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute,[5] a position held since 2018.[6]

Reputation

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Alan is noted for his "exceptional and original contributions to ecology and evolutionary biology", "earning honors including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". With 36,590 citations as of 2021, Alan is possibly the most respected and referenced theoretical ecologists in the world. His work includes "cornerstone papers on population dynamics in stochastic environments" which have led to "major advances in theory, and also deeply influenced practice in the conservation of species". Alan continues to run the Hastings lab at the University of California, Davis, where he is beloved by the "numerous outstanding young scientists" he has trained.[7]

Honors and awards

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Bibliography

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  • Alan Hastings. (1997). Population biology: concepts and models. New York: Springer. ISBN 0387948627

References

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  1. ^ "EGSA Announcement". Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
  2. ^ Hastings, Alan. "Alan Hastings website". Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  3. ^ Hastings, Alan (1972). "Eliminating Viability Differences in Computing Recombination Percentages". The Journal of Heredity. 63 (3): 129–131. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a108250. PMID 5042043. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  4. ^ Hastings, Alan. "Alan Hastings personal CV" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  5. ^ "Alan Hastings, External Professor". Santa Fe Institute. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  6. ^ "New External Faculty announced for 2018". Santa Fe Institute Office of Communications. August 1, 2018. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  7. ^ Diekmann, Odo (2020). "Special issue of the Journal of Mathematical Biology to honor Alan Hastings' 65th birthday". Journal of Mathematical Biology. 80 (1–2): 1–2. doi:10.1007/s00285-020-01472-3. PMID 32006102. S2CID 210998374.