Robert Lacy
Robert Lacy has been a Conservation Scientist for the Chicago Zoological Society since 1985. As of 2003, he also took on the role of Chair of the IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group. He served as Chair of an IUCN Species Conservation Planning Task Force that recently developed a new framework for strategic planning for species conservation.
He was trained in evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics (PhD, Cornell University). He has published papers in evolutionary theory, genetics, population ecology, taxonomy, behavior, physiology, conservation, and wildlife management.
Dr. Lacy has 24 years of experience in using experimental populations of mice to examine the effects of inbreeding and outbreeding, his lab provided the first experimental documentation that inbred animals have lower survival when reintroduced into natural habitats, and he is currently documenting the multiple impacts on behavior, physiology, morphology, and reproduction caused by genetic changes in managed populations of wildlife. Dr. Lacy helped to develop the pedigree analysis methods used for the management of captive populations, and he developed the software used around the world to guide the genetic management of breeding programs in zoos.
The population viability analysis (PVA) software that he developed (Vortex) is used by conservationists, wildlife managers, researchers, and students throughout the world to help guide species risk assessments and conservation planning. Vortex is the only widely available PVA modeling software that allows detailed modeling of the genetic structure that emerges from population dynamics, and the feedback of genetics (via inbreeding depression and natural selection) on demography and population viability. Recent enhancements to Vortex allow modeling of managed pedigreed populations, and flexible links to integrate with models of other components of systems, such as GIS models of landscape change, epidemiological models of infectious disease, and multi-species models.
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