ESS site Acknowledgments

Thanks and Acknowledgments

The construction of this site depended greatly on the contributions of colleagues, friends and institutions. There contributions are many but in no way are they responsible for any errors that might exist at this site. I am grateful to the following people and organizations:

People

Dr. Jeff Lucas: Biology Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Jeff's contributions were immeasurable. After my first shot at constructing this site for one of my classes in the fall of 1997, I asked Jeff and several other individuals (see below) to take a look. Jeff was at the top of my list because I knew him to be an excellent biologist, mathematical biologist, and programmer. Also, he teaches a graduate level course in modeling. Jeff quickly supplied me with copious thoughtful criticisms and suggestions. As a naive subject, his experiences with version 1 of the simulations brought me to totally redesign the interface (I learned that it is one thing if your students whom you see daily are the users of a program and it is quite another when the users are at a distance!) Jeff's honest, professional critiques also led me to sharpen some of my own understanding of game theory and abandon some old misconceptions. Jeff also reviewed the new site and a number of substantial changes were made as a result of his comments. So, not to lay it on too thickly, but if I were to give a hero award for getting this site looking and working the way it should, it would go to Jeff.

And, yes, in the interest of full disclosure, Jeff and I were housemates (in the infamous "Zoo House") during part of our graduate school years in Zoology Department at Florida. I looked hard to find old pictures that were sufficiently embarrassing to him to post on this page, but I could not find any! (Press here to go to Jeff's homepage)

Dr. Kevin Mitchell: Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges You won't see his face in the picture I stole from his website, but perhaps you'll learn something about his interests. Kevin is one of this site's three most contributors. He produced all of the pdf files for this website. These include an edited (and improved) version of the site's hypertext and an excellent, more sophisticated treatment of the basics of integration and probability density that accompanies the "war of attrition" section. Kevin's pdf files complement the hypertext by giving students the text, equations and figures in a book-like format that gets around the problems that occur when hypertext is simply printed (information from links is often lost -- hypertext and text are in many ways very different media).
Kevin also acted as an editor -- besides pointing out a number of errors, he made many important suggestions that have substantially improved the hypertext material.
Kevin team teaches an innovative course for undergraduates entitled "Mathematical Modeling in Biological Systems" at HWS. I urge interested persons to take a look. (Press here to go to Kevin's homepage)

Dr. Cathy Langtimm: Biological Resources Division, USGS and Dept. of Biology, College of the Holy Cross. Thanks for the thoughtful criticism, especially for trying to slim down my use of the language (a hopeless task). And congratulations for learning how to make hyperlinks while cleaning up this website. Especially, thanks for being supportive! (Press here to go to Cathy's homepage)

Dr. John Little: Department of Mathematics, College of the Holy Cross. John saved me when my math failed me! I went to John when I realized that I could not remember how to reconstruct Maynard Smith's steps for finding the probability density function used in the war of attrition. Thanks for bringing me back up to a modest facility with aspects of calculus I had long ago forgotten; moreover, thanks for correcting my idiosyncratic calculus notations! (Press here to visit John's homepage)

Dr. Susan Riechert: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Anyone following game theory knows that Sue has made substantial contributions to the field over the years. I want to thank her for encouraging me to construct this site and for her helpful comments and for all the service she provided to the ABS as its president. (Press here to go to Sue's homepage)

Dr. Richard Lent: Information Technology Coordinator, College of the Holy Cross. Thanks for testing the application versions of the simulations on Windows NT and for taking my class codes and figuring out how to create double-clickable versions for Windows32. Sorry for the small picture, Rich.

Robert Henry: Information Technology Services, College of the Holy Cross. For testing portions of this site on Windows95 and 98. Bob also helped me greatly with the feedback form and set up the www.holycross.edu server to handle the form. Thanks Bob and thanks for all the other help you've given me over the years! Bob will not allow himself to be photographed -- something about the witness protection program!

Dr. Tom Walker: Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville For all of the fruitful discussions over the years about IT and teaching. Tom is a leader and innovator -- go visit his website!

Dr. Chris Maden: Long time friend and free-thinker. It was Chris who, over ten years ago, forcefully made arguments that resulted in me changing my teaching style to reduce the amount of note taking and increase the amount of direct interaction. This point of view is reflected in this entire website and in my comparative physiology site. I am certain that all of my students have benefited from this change -- thanks Chris!

My grad. school teachers of animal behavior at Univ. of Florida: I had the benefit of a number of excellent professors when I was a graduate student. They provided much of the foundation for my professional life and especially my understanding of behavior. I wish to thank Drs. H. Jane Brockmann (Zoology), Donald Dewsbury (Psychology) and Jack Kaufmann (Zoology, retired).

Institutions

College of the Holy Cross: For hosting this site. Most importantly, for not insisting that this site be password protected so that only Holy Cross students or those who pay a fee can use it, and especially for not insisting or even requesting that I hand over the copyright for this material to the College. This has allowed me, by personal choice, to offer this work freely (much of which has been done "at home, on my own time"). The administration at the College of the Holy Cross has made a concerted, far-sighted effort to be a provider of free information to the community and I am proud to be part of this (see note about the roles of academies and societies in the promotion of learning).

Hewlett-Mellon: I received partial support from the President's Hewlett-Mellon discretionary fund to learn Java during the summer of 1996.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute: I wish to thank the HHMI for the computers I have used in this project. HHMI III funded the creation of a departmental computer lab.

Finally I especially wish to thank the folks in the Java Development teams at Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Natural Intelligence (regrettably out of the Java business) and Symantec for making development great tools!

And, to the folks at Apple Computer for making great operating systems and lately, again, great computers.

This site was created on a Mac G3 and 7300; the hypertext with Adobe PageMill, and the Java simulations with Natural Intelligence's Roaster and Symantec's Visual Cafe.

-- Whatever "on one's own time" means in academics! (back)

If I recall correctly, the academy (and scientific societies) are supposed to be about learning and distribution of knowledge. Web publishing is inexpensive to institutions and can occur largely as a by-product of other needs for computers. While academies certainly need money to function, nevertheless, they should give something back to the community without having to charge for everything. The choice of whether or not to charge for a program or access to a website should rest with the author(s) of the material. Please note that none of this meant to condemn those who decide to charge for their work -- it is aimed more at administrators who have moved too far towards becoming business people and have forgotten their academic roots. (back)