STEVE NOWICKI
Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
Steve Nowicki is a Bass Fellow and Professor in the Departments of Biology and Psychology & Neuroscience in Trinity College, and Neurobiology in the medical school at Duke University. Nowicki received both B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tufts University , the latter under the guidance of Ben Dane at Tufts and Ken Armitage of the University of Kansas . He received his doctorate in Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University in 1985 under the direction of Tom Eisner. After leaving Cornell, Nowicki did post-doctoral work and was appointed assistant professor at The Rockefeller University, working in Peter Marler's laboratory at Rockefeller's Field Station in Millbrook. He has been at Duke since 1989 and was appointed Dean of Natural Sciences there in 2004.
Nowicki's research explores proximate mechanisms underlying the evolution of behavior. He is especially interested in the structure, function, and evolution of animal communication systems, using birdsong as a model system. His current research includes work on the evolution of signal complexity, constraints on signal evolution, and mechanisms of signal production and perception. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and several private foundations including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Whitehall Foundation, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust.
In 1996, Nowicki introduced major curricular reforms to the introductory biology course at Duke, emphasizing both a novel conceptual organization and the development of small-group active learning exercises conducted in "seminar" groups embedded in the larger class as a whole. This course was recognized as part of an NSF RAIRE grant awarded to Duke in 1997. In 2004, Nowicki published a video lecture series based on this introductory biology course, titled " Biology: The Science of Life " (The Teaching Company: Chantilly , VA ). He is also is author of "Biology," a high school introductory biology text book to be published in 2008 by McDougal-Littell. Nowicki taught an upper-level neurobiology course at Duke, which earned him the Robert B. Cox Trinity College Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992, and he currently also teaches upper-level courses for both science and non-science majors.