Contact levitis[at]wisc.edu Skype: daniellevitis

Levitis CV [download]

Blog Blog of Science!

I am an evolutionary biologist. I was educated at a liberal arts school (Bennington) and have taught at a liberal arts school (Bates) and am a constant advocate for the need for interactive learning and multidisciplinary thinking. The central question my research addresses (with diverse methods and taxa) is, how do patterns of mortality over age evolve? I am particularly interested in observed mortality patterns that violate predictions of the evolutionary theory of aging: pre-reproductive mortality and developmental failure, post-reproductive survival, and populations that appear not to age. I choose whichever system best allows me to test my broad hypotheses, and have published on a wide variety of animals, fungi, and plants. I have mentored, and published with, numerous and diverse undergraduate researchers, and consider the chance to do cutting edge science a key part of science education. I have expertise in ecology, evolution, demography, natural history, the biology of aging, conservation biology, and zoology.

2015-2016. Bates College: Evolutionary Biology, Advanced Topics in Evolution, Conservation Biology, Independent Study in Biology

2013-2015. University of Southern Denmark: Introduction to Evolutionary Demography, Field Course in Terrestrial Zoology, Introduction to Biodemography, First Year Research Projects, Independent Research Projects, Bachelors Projects

2011-2012. Max Planck International Research School for Demography: Introduction to Evolutionary Demography

Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from University of California at Berkeley, December 2009. Dissertation: "Post-fertile Survival: the Evolution of a Demographic Anomaly"

B.A. in Biology from Bennington College, 1999

2017. Levitis DA, Zimmerman K, Pringle A. Is meiosis a fundamental cause of inviability among sexual and asexual plants and animals? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. In Press.

Featured in Phys.org and UW-Madison News

2017. Levitis DA, Golan J, Pringle A, Taylor J. A century later, resolving Joseph Grinnell's "Striking Case of Adventitious Coloration." The Auk: Ornithological Advances. 134, 551-552.

2016. Saberski ET*, Diamond JD*, Henneman N*, Levitis DA. Post-reproductive parthenogenetic pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) are visually identifiable and disproportionately positioned distally to clonal colonies. PeerJ. 4, e2631

2016. Dunn PH, Zarulli V, Levitis DA. Beyond being eaten or swept away: Ontogenetic transitions drive developmental mortality in marine barnacle larvae. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 559, 103-116.

2016. Zimmerman K, Levitis DA, Pringle A. Beyond animals and plants: Dynamic maternal effects in the fungus Neurospora crassa. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 29: 1379-1393.

2016. Zimmerman K, Levitis DA, Addicott E*, Pringle A. Selection of Pairings Reaching Evenly Across the Data (SPREAD): A simple algorithm to design maximally informative fully crossed mating experiments. Heredity 116: 182-189.

2015. Levitis DA. Evolutionary Demography: a synthesis of two population sciences. In: International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd Edition. ed.: J.D. Wright. 413-419.

2015. Olsen TB*, Christensen FEG*, Lundgreen K, Dunn PH, Levitis DA. Coelomic transport and clearance of foreign bodies by sea stars (Asterias rubens). Biological Bulletin 228: 156-162.

2015. Oravecz Z, Faust K, Batchelder WH, Levitis DA. Studying the existence and attributes of consensus on psychological concepts by a cognitive psychological model. American Journal of Psychology 128: 61-75.

2013. Levitis DA, Burger O, Bingaman Lackey L. The human postfertile life span in comparative evolutionary context. Evolutionary Anthropology 22: 66-79.

2013. Levitis DA, Martinez DE. The two halves of U-shaped mortality. Frontiers in Genetics of Aging 4: 31.

2013. Levitis DA, Goldstein J*. The consistent, non-destructive measurement of small proteiform aquatic animals, with application to the size and growth of hydra. Marine and Freshwater Research 64: 332-339.

2011. Levitis DA. Before senescence: the evolutionary demography of ontogenesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278: 801-809.

2011. Levitis DA, Bingaman Lackey L. A measure for describing and comparing postreproductive life span as a population trait. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2: 446-453.

2009. Levitis DA, Lidicker Jr WZ, Freund G*. Behavioural biologists do not agree on what constitutes behaviour. Animal Behaviour 78: 103-110.

2003. Sherman E, Levitis DA. Heat hardening as a function of developmental stage in larval and juvenile Bufo americanus and Xenopus laevis. Journal of Thermal Biology 28: 373-38.

September 2017. "The Universal Cost of Sex." Julia Cechvala. The Isthmus.

August 2017. "Pregnancy loss and the evolution of sex are linked by cellular line dance." Eric Hamilton. Phys.org.

August 2017. Video: "Why do so many offspring die?"

July 2015. "Starfish Ruin an Experiment and Reveal a Superpower" Elizabeth Preston. Discover Magazine Blog.

July 2015. Video: "S⌀stjernens hemmelighed (The Starfish Secret)" (watched >490K times)

June 2015. "Picture of the Day: Watch a starfish squeeze a lodged object out of its arm" Andy Coghlen. New Scientist.

April 2013. "Phenomena: Why Menopause?" Carl Zimmer. National Geographic Online.

July 2009. "Basics: When 'What Animals Do' Doesn't Seem to Cover It" Natalie Angier. The New York Times.