Curator
Negaunee Integrative Research Center
As Negaunee Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum, Larry has been actively involved in research, education, care of the museum’s research collection, development of exhibits, and management of the museum since 1988. He began his career as a volunteer at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, attended the University of Minnesota and worked at the Bell Museum of Natural History as an undergraduate, and received his PhD in Systematics and Ecology from the University of Kansas. He currently teaches undergraduate students and advises graduate students at the University of Chicago, with a primary affiliation with the Committee on Evolutionary Biology.
His primary research interest is in the evolutionary origin, ecological maintenance, and conservation of mammalian diversity in island ecosystems. He began conducting research in the Philippines in 1981, and has led teams of researchers (both foreign and Filipino) to many remote areas, where they have discovered dozens of previously unknown species of mammals, documented patterns of diversity along elevational and disturbance gradients, and inferred the historical processes that have led to the development of this highly distinctive fauna. This research has helped to promote the declaration of many national parks, and has helped to improve the management of others. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he worked with Filipino colleagues to establish the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines in 1992 (now the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines), and n...
Education and Work
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; B. S. - June 1975
University of Kansas, Lawrence; M.A. awarded with honors - May 1978
University of Kansas, Lawrence; Ph.D. - October 1979EMPLOYMENT: June 1967 to June 1971: Volunteer and Museum Technician, Division of Mammals, Smithsonian Institution
June 1971 to Sept. 1971: Field Collector, Delaware Museum of Natural History
June 1972 to June 1975: Undergraduate Curatorial and Research Assistant, University of Minnesota
June 1973 to August 1975: Field and Research Assistant, Smithsonian Institution (summers)
August to May, 1975 to 1979: Curatorial, Teaching, and Research Assistant, University of Kansas
June 1978 to Sept. 1978: Smithsonian Institution Visiting Graduate Student
Sept. 1979 to Aug. 1986: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology and Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan
Sept. 1986 to Oct. 1988: Research Fellow, Smithsonian Institution
1 Jan. - 31 Dec. 2003: Visiting Scholar, Dept. Geological Sciences, Northwestern University
Oct. 1988 to present: Assistant Curator of Mammals, 1988-June 1991; Associate Curator, June 1991-2002; Curator, 2002-present, Field Museum
Accomplishments
A list of publications since 2000. For a full list of publications, see attached Curriculum Vitae. The following is a list of grants and awards since 1990. For a full list of grants and awards, see attached Curriculum Vitae.
1990 . "Conservation of Mammalian Diversity in the Philippine Islands: Training, Inventory, and Resource Development". MacArthur Foundation. Three years (Nov. 1990 - Nov. 1993).
1991. "A Collaborative Advanced Training Program in the Conservation of Biological Diversity". MacArthur Foundation. Three years; Heaney\, R. Lacy\, and J. Brown. (Sept. 1993-Dec. 1996).
1992. "Proposal for a Conservation Training Consortium". MacArthur Foundation. Three years. Challenge grant accepted by a consortium of The Field Museum\, Brookfield Zoo\, University of Chicago\, University of Illinois at Chicago\, and Shedd Aquarium. Heaney and D. Moskovits\, Co-PI.
1993. “Improvement of long-term storage of the Field Museum’s Bird and Mammal genetic resources”. National Science Foundation. Two years. Hackett\, Patterson\, Bates\, Heaney.
1994. “Development of an Integrated Network for Distributed Databases of Mammal Specimen Data”. National Science Foundation. Three years. Heaney\, Lowther\, Patterson\, Stanley.
1995. “Dissertation Research: Comparative phylog...
Research Sketch
For several centuries, biologists have pointed to island archipelagos as natural laboratories where biological processes can be studied. My research focuses on the evolutionary origin, ecological maintenance, and conservation of natural biological diversity in two areas: Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines, and the Intermountain West of the United States. I study mammals that live on land - on the ground, in trees, and in the air.
Philippine Mammal Project
Research in the Philippines has absorbed much of my time since 1981, when I made my first trip to conduct field studies at several locations on Luzon and Negros islands. Then, as now, I sought to understand the processes that influence the number of species that live on a given island; the distribution of species within the archipelago; the relationships of species that are unique (endemic) to the archipelago or some limited part of the archipelago; the processes of colonization, speciation, and extinction that have taken place; the impact of past and present climate on the diversity of mammals; and the role of the geological history of the archipelago in shaping the current mammal fauna. I expected the project to last about five years; that was 30 years ago. Along the way, we have found a great many things that we did not expect - and each has added important questions that must be answered to achieve those initial (and increasingly complex) goals.
The adjacent map shows the locations of the primary study areas where we have obtained detailed information. In each of these areas, we have conducted standardized surveys of the mammals, using ...
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