Kent Dunlap

Kent Dunlap is Professor of Biology at Trinity College, Hartford, where he teaches physiology and anatomy and conducts research on fish. In the summers, he also makes pottery and sculpts ceramic animals. While teaching anatomy and trying to understand the basic design of animals, he was also making ceramic vases — pots with fragile necks. He became captivated by a question: how did the neck become so central to our survival and culture, yet remain so vulnerable? This led to his new book, The Neck: A Natural and Cultural History, a fun and illuminating 300-million-year tour of the prominent role of the neck in animal evolution and human culture. His other research is mostly on the neurobiology and behavior of tropical freshwater fish, specifically weakly electric fish and killifish (animals without necks!). He examines how features of the natural environment (for example, social interaction, predator exposure, parasite infection and oxygen availability) influence the birth of new cells in the adult brain. This research includes experiments in his laboratory as well as field work abroad, including field studies in Uruguay, Panama, Trinidad and Uganda. He has received Fulbright Scholar awards to conduct this research in both Uruguay and Portugal.