Talk:Peter L. Hurd

Archive
/Archive

Some suggestions
The citation counts in the "Most cited publications" are far higher than I get when checking that source, perhaps that section (and the "Recent Publications") sections could be deleted since the list of pubs (especially ones "in prep") isn't really helpful to readers without some text explaining just what they are about any way. Pete.Hurd 03:52, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm inclined to agree. While I see the value in the "most cited publication" section, I don't see the use of "recent publications".  I will remove that section and check the citation counts. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 04:43, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and removed both sections, the citation counts were way off, and given that there aren't a set of publications that are cited way more than others, I'm not sure there is a benefit to listing some of them. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 04:50, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I miss both of the sections you just removed. It is not so important that the citation counts be exactly right, but the article is more helpful to the reader if he can quickly learn what this man is writing about. Just from a scan of the titles I got an idea, and now the titles are gone. To me, this article did not look like an undigested resume; it was well organized. If you believe that too many papers were listed, maybe they could be cut down 30%. Eliminate the citation counts if you don't like them. EdJohnston 05:13, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I think the goal of explaining what I'm writing about is better served by some short paragraphs of text explaining the research plus references, than by a list of publications. (see commented out text below for some idea of what I think might be a better way to explain this work). Pete.Hurd 05:30, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

<!-- Peter L. Hurd is an academic specialising in biology. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, aligned to both the Department of Psychology's Biocognition Unit, and the University's Centre for Neuroscience. His research primarily focuses on the evolutionary pressures maintaining individual variation in agonistic behaviour, and includes investigation of aggression, animal communication and other social behaviour which takes place between animals with conflicting interests. Major tools for this research are mathematical modeling (principally game theory, genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks). He is also interested in how the process of sexual differentiation produces individual differences in social behaviour.

Hurd's contributions to his field have been recognised in the international media (including publications and television). The most significant of these appear in the BBC, the New York Times , Discover Magazine , Scientific American Mind , National Geographic and Jay Leno.

Evolution of animal signalling
Some of Hurd's most cited papers deal with the evolution of mating displays, specifically the idea that sexually selected traits have evolved to exploit previously existing biases in the sensory, or recognition, systems of their receivers, rather than being handicapped displays  Hurd has argued against the handicap principle view of animal communication, demonstrating the evolutionary stability of conventional (non-handicap) threat displays using game theoretical models. Adding empirical support to this theoretical work, Hurd has also argued that threat displays in birds, and headbob displays in the lizard Anolis carolinensis are conventional signals, rather than handicaps. Hurd attributes the preponderance of handicap models in biology to the use of simple signalling games which are incapable of modelling conventional signalling.

Aggressiveness
Hurd has classified models of fighting behaviour into those driven by: 1) fighting ability (aka resource holding potential), 2) perceived value of winning, and 3) aggressiveness and argues that if variation in the last trait -aggressiveness- exists in a biologically meaningful way, it ought to be fixed for life at an early stage of development . Many studies on both human, and non-human, animals suggest that inter-individual variation in adult aggressiveness is largely organised by prenatal exposure to androgens.  Digit ratio (2D:4D, the ratio of index to ring finger length) is a widely used as a proxy measure for prenatal testosterone exposure.  Hurd demonstrated that men with more feminine typical-digit ratios showed lower aggressive tendency than males with more masculine-typical digit ratios.

Digit ratio
Among his other research into digit ratio, Hurd has demonstrated that, while there is no difference in digit ratio between the sexes in most laboratory mice, that pups which gested next to brothers have higher digit ratios than those whose uterine neighbours were sisters, and that the large differences in digit ratios between populations may be explained by Allen's rule and Bergmann's rule.

Academic History
Strongly influenced as a youth by the anarcho-punk movement and such influences as Jonathan Kozol and A. S. Neill's Summerhill School, Hurd was an enthusiastic member of a student run free school group while unenthusiastically attending Colonel By Secondary School. He then completed a BSc at Carleton University, Canada in 1990, followed by an MSc in 1993 from Simon Fraser University. He moved to Sweden to undertake a PhD at Stockholm University (Awarded in 1997) before committing to an initial postdoctoral fellowship with Mike Ryan at the University of Texas. Hurd then became a lecturer at the University of Texas in 2000 until 2001 when he moved to the University of Alberta, Canada as an Assistant Professor. Hurd was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007.

Notability problem
This article mixes up bibliography and references. Mentions his own bibliography as references. Some references are not suitable for an academician, such as BBC or New York Times. Notability problem. Jessika Folkerts (talk) 11:15, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

How to improve this article
Though I agree with the result of the 2007 AfD, that this article is worth keeping, I think that the writing could be further improved. A patient explanation of one or two of the topics he has worked on could be of great interest. Only now did I realize that Peter Hurd has offered his own proposed draft of the article in the hidden text of this article, following his last comment above. To simplify referring to it, I put his entire text into a collapse box just below, where you are invited to view it. I think we might be able to use this for ideas in expanding the article. I have reduced the headings by one level.

Note that Prof. Hurd is doing the opposite of self-promotion here; he actually suggested the article be deleted, but is offering what he thinks might be a better version. He was the nominator in the AfD on 14 June, 2007. He declared himself to be non-notable!

Peter L. Hurd is an academic specialising in biology. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, aligned to both the Department of Psychology's Biocognition Unit, and the University's Centre for Neuroscience. His research primarily focuses on the evolutionary pressures maintaining individual variation in agonistic behaviour, and includes investigation of aggression, animal communication and other social behaviour which takes place between animals with conflicting interests. Major tools for this research are mathematical modeling (principally game theory, genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks). He is also interested in how the process of sexual differentiation produces individual differences in social behaviour.

Hurd's contributions to his field have been recognised in the international media (including publications and television). The most significant of these appear in the BBC, the New York Times , Discover Magazine , Scientific American Mind , National Geographic and Jay Leno.

Evolution of animal signalling
Some of Hurd's most cited papers deal with the evolution of mating displays, specifically the idea that sexually selected traits have evolved to exploit previously existing biases in the sensory, or recognition, systems of their receivers, rather than being handicapped displays  Hurd has argued against the handicap principle view of animal communication, demonstrating the evolutionary stability of conventional (non-handicap) threat displays using game theoretical models. Adding empirical support to this theoretical work, Hurd has also argued that threat displays in birds, and headbob displays in the lizard Anolis carolinensis are conventional signals, rather than handicaps. Hurd attributes the preponderance of handicap models in biology to the use of simple signalling games which are incapable of modelling conventional signalling.

Aggressiveness
Hurd has classified models of fighting behaviour into those driven by: 1) fighting ability (aka resource holding potential), 2) perceived value of winning, and 3) aggressiveness and argues that if variation in the last trait -aggressiveness- exists in a biologically meaningful way, it ought to be fixed for life at an early stage of development . Many studies on both human, and non-human, animals suggest that inter-individual variation in adult aggressiveness is largely organised by prenatal exposure to androgens.  Digit ratio (2D:4D, the ratio of index to ring finger length) is a widely used as a proxy measure for prenatal testosterone exposure.  Hurd demonstrated that men with more feminine typical-digit ratios showed lower aggressive tendency than males with more masculine-typical digit ratios.

Digit ratio
Among his other research into digit ratio, Hurd has demonstrated that, while there is no difference in digit ratio between the sexes in most laboratory mice, that pups which gested next to brothers have higher digit ratios than those whose uterine neighbours were sisters, and that the large differences in digit ratios between populations may be explained by Allen's rule and Bergmann's rule.

Academic History
Strongly influenced as a youth by the anarcho-punk movement and such influences as Jonathan Kozol and A. S. Neill's Summerhill School, Hurd was an enthusiastic member of a student run free school group while unenthusiastically attending Colonel By Secondary School. He then completed a BSc at Carleton University, Canada in 1990, followed by an MSc in 1993 from Simon Fraser University. He moved to Sweden to undertake a PhD at Stockholm University (Awarded in 1997) before committing to an initial postdoctoral fellowship with Mike Ryan at the University of Texas. Hurd then became a lecturer at the University of Texas in 2000 until 2001 when he moved to the University of Alberta, Canada as an Assistant Professor. Hurd was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007.