Alan M. Roberts

Alan Madoc Roberts (born 1941)[1]FRS[2] is an English academic serving as Emeritus professor of Zoology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol.[4][5][6][7]

Alan Roberts
Alan Roberts at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2015
Born	Alan Madoc Roberts 24 August 1941[1] Rugby, Warwickshire[1]
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (PhD)
Awards	FRS (2015)[2]
Scientific career
Fields	Zoology Xenopus Neuroanatomy Electrophysiology[3]
Institutions	University of Bristol Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California, San Diego
Thesis	Recurrent Inhibition in the Giant Fibre System of the Crayfish and its Effect on the Excitability of the Escape Response (1967)
Doctoral advisor	Ted Bullock[3]
Influences	Hans Lissmann[3] George E. Coghill[2]
Website	bristol.ac.uk/biology/people/alan-roberts

Education

Roberts was educated at Rugby School[1] and the University of Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences (Zoology) at Trinity College, Cambridge. He went on to study at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he was awarded a PhD in 1967 for research supervised by Theodore Holmes Bullock[3] on the escape response of Crayfish.[8]

Awards and honours

Roberts was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015.[9] His certificate of election reads:

Alan Roberts is a distinguished electrophysiologist, neuroanatomist and student of animal behaviour. His sustained investigation of the circuitry that underlies behaviour in amphibian tadpoles has transformed our understanding of a spinal network generating rhythmic movement and its regulation by sensory and descending inputs. Inspired by Coghill to work with simple networks in an embryonic vertebrate, his detailed cell by cell analysis provides unique insights into the developmental origins of connectivity and its functional significance.[2]

References

1. "ROBERTS, Prof. Alan Madoc". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2016 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
2. Anon (2015). "Professor Alan Roberts FRS". London: royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015.
3. "Alan Roberts Biography". University of Bristol. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015.
4. Alan M. Roberts's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
5. Roberts, A; Conte, D; Hull, M; Merrison-Hort, R; Al Azad, A. K.; Buhl, E; Borisyuk, R; Soffe, S. R. (2014). "Can simple rules control development of a pioneer vertebrate neuronal network generating behavior?". Journal of Neuroscience. 34 (2): 608–21. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3248-13.2014. PMC 3870938. PMID 24403159.
6. Buhl, E; Roberts, A; Soffe, S. R. (2012). "The role of a trigeminal sensory nucleus in the initiation of locomotion". The Journal of Physiology. 590 (Pt 10): 2453–69. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2012.227934. PMC 3424764. PMID 22393253.
7. Roberts, A; Feetham, B; Pajak, M; Teare, T (2009). "Responses of hatchling Xenopus tadpoles to water currents: First function of lateral line receptors without cupulae". Journal of Experimental Biology. 212 (Pt 7): 914–21. doi:10.1242/jeb.027250. PMID 19282488.
8. Roberts, Alan Madoc (1967). Recurrent Inhibition in the Giant Fibre System of the Crayfish and its Effect on the Excitability of the Escape Response (PhD thesis). University of California, Los Angeles. OCLC 20830525. ProQuest 302225423.
9. "Professor Alan Roberts FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015.