avg_rating: 3.85
name: Bobbi S. Low
about: Bobbi S. Low is Professor of Resource Ecology in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE), and Faculty Associate in Population Studies, the Institute for Social Research, at the University of Michigan. Her research centers on behavioral ecology and life history theory: how these were shaped by evolution, and how they in turn constrain optimal management. She links data collection, analysis, and theory; her methodologies include dynamic modeling, optimization, agent-based modeling and game theory.Low’s research crosses the biological and social sciences, both in topics and journals.. Her biological and ecological research includes studies of toad skin secretions, the ecological tradeoffs of marsupialism, fish schooling, kan Bobbi S. Low is Professor of Resource Ecology in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE), and Faculty Associate in Population Studies, the Institute for Social Research, at the University of Michigan. Her research centers on behavioral ecology and life history theory: how these were shaped by evolution, and how they in turn constrain optimal management. She links data collection, analysis, and theory; her methodologies include dynamic modeling, optimization, agent-based modeling and game theory.Low’s research crosses the biological and social sciences, both in topics and journals.. Her biological and ecological research includes studies of toad skin secretions, the ecological tradeoffs of marsupialism, fish schooling, kangaroo foraging, the biology of sex differences, and the evolution of anisogamy. Other papers focus on anthropological, psychological and social issues, including: sexual attitudes and behavior in Thailand, sex roles in war and politics, more generally cross-cultural perspectives of women’s ecological and demographic constraints, reproductive behavior and the demographic transition in 19th century Sweden, the evolutionary role of body fat and ornamentation, and the role of unpredictability in risk taking.Most of Low’s research sits at the intersection and cross influences of biology/ecology on the one hand and psychology/anthropology/social sciences on the other. Her interdisciplinary work often centers on ecological and cultural influences on mating and marriage systems, but it also includes a recent (co-authored) paper on the impact of psychological stress on fertility (PNAS, 2006), a book and papers on the evolution of sex differences, work on pathogen stress and marriage systems in traditional societies, and papers and an edited volume connecting natural ecosystems and human cultural/economic systems, with an emphasis on conservation, sustainability and optimal management. Low is active the world-wide evolutionary ecology community. She is on the editorial boards of Human Behavior and Evolution, Human Nature, and Politics and the Life Sciences. She has just completed a term as President of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. At UM SNRE she has been the supervisor/mentor of nearly fifty graduate students in the last five years; her students won the prestigious Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2004 and 2006. ...more