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Philip Myers
Professor
Curator, Museum of Zoology
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1975
U-M affiliation(s)
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Museum of Zoology
Contact information
University of Michigan
3048 Museums Bldg.
1109 Geddes Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
Phone: (734) 647-2206
Fax: (734) 763-4080
Email: pmyers@umich.edu |
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Fields of study
Biosystematics and ecology of mammals
Academic background
I received my undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College (1969) and my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1975).
Graduate students
Lucia Luna Wong, Diego Alvarado Serrano, Judy Wan, Alexa Unruh
News
Myers wins inaugural teaching innovation prize
Professor Philip Myers is among five faculty members being honored with U-M’s first Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize. He receives a $5,000 award honoring the most original approaches to teaching and creativity in the classroom. Myers was selected by a faculty committee from over 100 nominations from students, staff and faculty. Myers is curator of the Museum of Zoology.
Myers founded and continues to manage the Animal Diversity Web, which contains thousands of detailed descriptions of species that have been contributed by students from more than 40 institutions in North America. ADW is one of the most widely used natural history databases worldwide, serving over five million pages to half a million users monthly. The ADW team includes Roger Espinosa, Tricia Jones, Tanya Dewey and George Hammond.
An elaborate content management system dubbed “Mousetrap” provides workspaces for student authors to submit their work to their instructors for review. Each section has a place for free text, along with associated keywords, data fields for quantitative summaries, and bibliographic citations.
Since 2007, a query system called Quaardvark has provided a new way for students to ask questions and download ADW data to explore natural history patterns and test hypotheses. Quaardvark opens up possibilities for active learning in many biological disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation.
An interdisciplinary partnership between the ADW team and Nancy Songer, a professor in the School of Education, has produced the BioKIDS and DeepThink programs. These bring authentic science experiences to fourth- through sixth-grade students in Detroit Public Schools.
Warming affects small mammals
Professor Phil Myers’ research on the climate change induced shifting of critter populations in Michigan was featured in the Detroit Free Press April 9, 2007.
Myers is associate curator of the U-M Museum of Zoology. He has found that over the past 25 years, many creatures such as possums, flying squirrels and deer mice have shifted their ranges further north as winters get warmer. This displaces their northern cousins, which in some cases, have become extinct.
“The very fabric of the small mammal community has changed,” said Myers. He studied many possible causes such as habitat and food but he believes warmer temperatures are the culprit.
NSF grant to promote active learning in ecology and biodiversity
Professor Phil Myers, associate curator of the Museum of Zoology, received a National Science Foundation grant titled “Exploring Natural History: Promoting Active Learning in Ecology and Biodiversity.” The 20-month grant is for over $149,000 starting in March 2007.
He will be exploring ways of using their large database of natural history, the Animal Diversity Web, as a foundation for teaching about patterns and processes in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. Classes at U-M, EMU, MSU, NMU, Kalamazoo College, Radford College, and Jackson Community College are participating. Completion of this project will result in substantial improvement in the quality of education in organismal biology and ecology.
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