Professor Daniel Robert DiplBiol(Neuchatel), PhD(Basle)

Academic history

Born in a little village at the end of a forested valley of the Swiss Jura mountains, I do indeed come from the land where watches are made. I first studied at Neuchatel University, where I began to be interested in sensory biology, in particular in gravity and infrared perception in ticks (M.Sc. 1985). Interested in better understanding how animals sense their world, I joined a PhD programme in neurobiology and neuroethology at the University of Basel, Switzerland (1989), where I studied the interactions of visual and auditory systems in the navigation and steering neural networks of flying locusts. Several postdocs lead me to conduct research on audition in moths (funded by: Danish Royal Science Foundation, Odense, Denmark, 1990) and tool use and acoustic communication in wild Chimpanzees (Basel University Award for Young Researchers, Ivory Coast 1991). As a Postdoc and Research Associate at Cornell University, NY USA (Swiss Science Foundation, Janggen Pöhn foundation, NIH, 1991-1996), I started to investigate the auditory systems of small parasitoid flies, discovering, and realising for myself at last, the marvellous sophistication and miniaturization ingenuity which the sensory systems of insects are endowed. Awarded a START fellowship (Research Assistant Professor) by the Swiss National Science Foundation (1996-2001), I built up a laboratory for bioacoustics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where research pertained to multiple aspects, and asked complementary how and why questions on the biology of audition in insects. Since August 2001, this research is continuing at the School of Biological Sciences, where I am a Professor in Bionanoscience.

Research interests

My research concentrates on the comparative study of the behavioural biology, biomechanics and evolution of auditory systems. Audition is investigated with regard to the diversity of sensory ecological contexts in which it evolved. This research contributes to the understanding of evolutionary sensory adaptation and instructs us on the 'how and why' constraints that operate on the design of sensory systems. For instance, the study of the biophysics of hearing in small parasitoid flies has led to the discovery of a novel principle of directional hearing and the development of a biologically-inspired directional subminiature microphone. My research thus also promotes the beneficial and reciprocal interactions between Engineering and Biological Sciences.

Specific research topics:

• Behavioural and psychophysical analysis of auditory perception in space. Hearing in the three dimensional space using two small ears is a considerable challenge to small animals. Insects are thus prime model systems to investigate that problem and its constraints to the design of efficient acoustic sensors.
• Investigation of the biogeography of acoustic parasitism, and its evolutionary radiation in higher flies. Coevolutionary process between host and parasitoid and its reflection in the design of dedicated sensory systems.
• Auditory mechanics and active audition in insects, in particular mosquiotes and Drosophila.
• Biomechanics of audition in other small insects (moths, grasshoppers, brachycerate flies)

More complete information about the research activities of the Laboratory for Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology.