When you look at the cover of the newly published book on biodemography by James R. Carey of UC Davis and Deborah A. Roach of the University of Virginia, it beckons you to read it.

Carey, the lead author of the 480-page book, Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods, published today (Jan. 7) by Princeton University Press, also designed the compelling cover.

The book “effortlessly sets the standard as the definitive text for the important, emerging field of biodemography,” said Robert Peterson, professor of entomology at Montana State University, and a past president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America. "The field is interdisciplinary and the authors have done a magnificent job integrating biology, mathematics, and demography."

Said Professor Tim Coulson of Oxford University: "Ecology and evolution are driven by who lives and reproduces and who doesn't. In recent years, the field of biodemography has developed a rich corpus of concepts and methods to analyze and predict patterns of birth and death. This excellent book provides a much-needed overview of ideas and approaches that will aid researchers, from students immersing themselves in the subject for the very first time to seasoned professors wishing to learn modern approaches."

Publishers describe the book as “an authoritative overview of the concepts and applications of biological demography.” 

The interdisciplinary field unites the natural science of biology with the social science of human demography, said Carey, a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology who is known as one of the founding fathers of biodemography and a global authority on arthropod demography.

Carey and Roach “provide a comprehensive introduction to biodemography, an exciting interdisciplinary field that unites the natural science of biology with the social science of human demography,” said Matt Taylor of Princeton University Press.

They “cover everything from baseline demographic concepts to biodemographic applications, and present models and equations in discrete rather than continuous form to enhance mathematical accessibility,” Taylor related. “They use a wealth of real-world examples that draw from data sets on both human and nonhuman species and offer an interdisciplinary approach to demography like no other, with topics ranging from kinship theory and family demography to reliability engineering, tort law and demographjic disasters such as the Titanic and the destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée.”

Carey said the new interdisciplinary field links a number of professions. “It is an essential resource for demographers, epidemiologists, gerontologists, and health professionals as well as ecologists, population biologists, entomologists, and conservation biologists,” he said.

In the foreword, J. W. Vaupel, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany, calls the book “impressive,” and noted that the authors both enlighten and inspire with their “important and innovative ideas, mode of explanation, and the graphic illustrations,” all of which make the book “sparkle.”

Topics range from kinship theory and family demography to reliability engineering and tort law, and also demographic disasters such as the Titanic and the destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée. It also includes an analysis of the Donner Party tragedy.

The book, according to the publishers, is pathbreaking in that it:

• provides the first synthesis of demography and biology
• covers baseline demographic models and concepts such as Lexis diagrams, mortality, fecundity, and population theory
• features in-depth discussions of biodemographic applications like harvesting theory and mark-recapture
• draws from data sets on species ranging from fruit flies and plants to elephants and humans
• uses a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to demography, bringing together a diverse range of concepts, models, and applications
• includes informative “biodemographic shorts,” appendixes on data visualization and management, and more than 150 illustrations of models and equations

Carey, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley and studied population biology for a year at Harvard while working on his doctorate, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1980. He served as the principal investigator of a 10-year, $10 million federal grant on “Aging in the Wild,” encompassing 14 scientists at 11 universities.

Highly honored for his research, teaching and public service, Carey is a fellow of four organizations; American Association for the Advancement of Science, Entomological Society of America, California Academy of Science and the Gerontological Society of America.

The long-awaited book on biodemography is about to be published and it's incredible.

Distinguished professor James R. Carey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a senior scholar at the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging, UC Berkeley, is the lead author of a pathbreaking book on biodemography, an interdisciplinary field uniting the natural science of biology with the social science of human demography.

The book, Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods, is the work of Carey and Deborah Roach, a University of Virginia biology professor and a past president of the Evolutionary Demographic Society. The landmark book will be published Jan. 7 by Princeton University Press.

Carey, one of the founding fathers of the interdisciplinary field and considered the global authority on arthropod demography, describes the field of biodemography as linking a number of professions. “It is an essential resource for demographers, epidemiologists, gerontologists, and health professionals as well as ecologists, population biologists, entomologists, and conservation biologists.

“The book consolidates the literature from three parent paradigms--biology, mathematics, and demography,” said Carey, whose career spans four decades at UC Davis.  Critics praise the book as “sweeping and ambitious in scope as it is bold and imaginative in design.”

Impressive
"Impressive" wrote J. W. Vaupel, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany, in the forward. “The authors aim to enlighten and inspire and they succeed,” Vaupel wrote. He cited the important and innovative ideas, mode of explanation, and the graphic illustrations, all of which make the book “sparkle.”

Carey and Roach cover everything from baseline demographic concepts to biodemographic applications, and “present models and equations in discrete rather than continuous form to enhance mathematical accessibility,” according to Princeton University. (Watch Carey's book trailer on YouTube)

Topics range from kinship theory and family demography to reliability engineering and tort law, and also demographic disasters such as the Titanic and the destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée. It also includes an analysis about the Donner Party.

“The Donner Party disaster is one of the best-known stories in American lore,” the authors wrote. “A total of 87 men, women, and children set out for California in wagon trains from Illinois in the summer of 1846, but because of unfortunate mishaps, poor decisions, and bad luck, they became trapped by early heavy snowfall in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in November. Four months later only 48 of the original 87 members of the party arrived in California alive."

The authors point out the differences in survival, “such that the young and old died at higher rates than the middle-aged. Indeed with one exception, no individuals of ether sex beyond 49 years survived. Males not only died at roughly twice the overall rate as females, but many males also died earlier in the disaster period. Third, kinship size and association were important to survival; individuals not associated with a kinship group died at much higher rates than those who were associated with a group.”

Marvelous Quote
When we thumbed through the book this week, we marveled at content. It's definitely a landmark book. We also marveled at the quote that Carey chose for the beginning of the book:

"Pure science is like a beautiful cloud of gold and scarlet that diffuses wondrous hues and beams of light in the west. It is not an illusion, but the splendor and beauty of truth. However, now the cloud rises, the winds blow it over the fields, and it takes on darker, more somber colors. It is performing a task and changing its party clothes—think of it as putting on its work shirt. It generates rain that irrigates the fields, soaking the land and preparing it for future harvests. In the end it provides humanity with its daily bread. What began as beauty for the soul and intellect ends by providing nourishment for the humble life of the body."--José Echegaray, Literature Nobel Laureate (1904), cited in “Advice for a Young Investigator” by Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1916, p. 26), Physiology and Medicine Nobel Laureate (1906).

Carey, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley and studied population biology for a year at Harvard while working on his doctorate, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1980. He served as the principal investigator of a 10-year, $10 million federal grant on “Aging in the Wild,” encompassing 14 scientists at 11 universities.

Highly honored for his research, teaching and public service, Carey is a fellow of four organizations; American Association for the Advancement of Science, Entomological Society of America, California Academy of Science and the Gerontological Society of America.

(Editor's Note: To purchase the book, access the Princeton University Press website.)

The highly respected California Academy of Sciences greeted its 2019 Class of Fellows on Oct. 15, and one of them is a pollination ecologist from the University of California, Davis. 

Professor Neal Williams of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology was inducted into the scientific organization at the annual Bay Area gathering of the Fellows. The group includes more than 450 distinguished scientists who have made notable contributions to science.

Dermatologist and associate professor Emanual Michael Maverakis of UC Davis Health was among the 13 other Fellows. (See list of 2019 inductees)

Fellows nominate others for the high honor, and then the California Academy of Sciences' Board of Trustees votes on the nominees. James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology, nominated Williams, with Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia, formerly of UC Berkeley, seconding the nomination. Maverakis was nominated by Walter Leal, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and a former chair of the entomology department.

In his letter of nomination, Carey wrote that Williams is “widely known and respected for his excellence in research, extension, outreach, teaching and leadership” and “is not only one of the stars of our campus, and the UC system, but is an internationally recognized leader in pollination and bee biology and strong voice in the development of collaborative research on insect ecology. He has organized national and international conferences, leads scores of working groups, and guides reviews of impacts of land use and other global change drivers on insects and the ecosystem services they provide.”

Williams' research spans the ecology and evolution of bees and other pollinating insects and their interactions with flowering plants. “He has become a leading voice for pollinator diversity and conservation in the California and The West,” wrote Carey. “One focus of his work has been in understanding the responses of bees to different environmental drivers and developing practical, scientifically grounded actions to support resilient pollinator communities. These efforts are particularly timely given concern over the global decline in bees and other pollinators.”

The UC Davis professor served as co-chair (with Extension apiclturist Elina Lastro Niño) of the seventh annual International Pollinator Conference, a four-day conference held July 17-20 on the UC Davis campus. The global conference focused on pollinator biology health and policy.

In his work--a labor of love--Williams seeks and finds found common solutions for sustaining both wild and managed bees and communicates that information to the public and stakeholder groups. Said Carey: “This is a critical perspective in natural and agricultural lands, but also in urban landscapes in northern and southern California.”

Each year the UC Davis professor speaks to multiple beekeeper, farmer and gardener groups, and provides guidance to governing bodies, including the state legislature, and environmental groups. He and his lab are involved in a newly initiated California Bombus assessment project, which is using both museum and citizen scientist records to understand past, current and future distributions and habitat use by bumble bees. This program will host a series of workshops this spring and summer open to practitioners and the public.

Williams received his doctorate in ecology and evolution in 1999 from the State University of New York, Stony Brook and served as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Bryn Mawr (Penn.) College from 2004 to 2009. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 2009, advancing to full professor in 2017.

His honors and awards are numerous. Williams was part of the UC Davis Bee Team that won the Team Research Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) in 2013. In 2015, he was named a five-year Chancellor's Fellow, receiving $25,000 to support his research, teaching and public service activities. And then earlier this year, Williams received PBESA's Plant-Insect Ecosystems Award, presented annually for outstanding accomplishments in the study of insect interrelationships with plants.

In addition to Carey, five others affiliated with UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology are Fellows of the California Academy of Sciences:

• Professor Phil Ward, ant specialist
• Frank Zalom, integrated pest management specialist and distinguished professor of entomology. He is a past president of the Entomological Society of America
• Robert E. Page Jr., bee scientist and UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor. He is a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and provost emeritus of Arizona State University
• Walter Leal, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and a former chair of the entomology department; and
• Visiting scientist Catherine Tauber, formerly of Cornell University.

Former Fellows from the UC Davis entomology department include Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), distinguished emeritus professor of entomology, and visiting scientist Maurice Tauber (1931-2014), formerly of Cornell University.

Mosquitoes apparently don't like entomologist James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.

"I've never been bitten by a mosquito," Carey told the standing-room crowd at his presentation on “African Odyssey: Wildlife Adventures, Natural Wonders and Indigenous Peoples” last Wednesday at Briggs Hall, UC Davis campus.

Carey shared and narrated video and pictorial content that he and his wife, Patty, recorded during vacations or on weekend trips during his annual teaching stints on the African continent over the last seven years.

"We drove over 12,000 miles in Sub-Sahara Africa, mostly self drive, including visits to or safaris in 25 national parks and 11 Unesco World Heritage sites in Kenya, Uganda, Botswana,  Ethiopia, South Africa, Namibia, Congo, Swaziland, Lesotho and Tanzania," Carey said.

The Careys captured images of  tigers, elephants, gorillas, zebras, and a white rhino, as landscapes, people and insects.

The professor's public presentation drew the audience's undivided attention. No one—no one—picked up a cell phone, much less checked it. 

He divided his fast-paved program into three parts:

Part 1: Wildlife adventures, including such topics as mountain gorillas in the Congo, floodlit watering holes, wildebeest migration, Okavango Delta, elephant herds and a wild dog pack in Botswana, plus overland, balloon and horseback safaris, and Namib and Kalahari Desert road trips.

Part 2: Natural wonders and sightseeing, centering on Table Mountain, Victoria Falls, Capes of Good Hope and Agulhas, Zanzibar, genocide and apartheid museums, livestock markets and a sudden flash flood.

Part 3: Indigenous cultures, covering singing fishermen of Lake Kivu, tribal peoples including Batwa pygmy, Hadza bushmen, Himba, Mursi and Dasenich tribes, and township tours of Langa and Soweto slums.

The Careys met Mursi women of Ethiopia who adorn their bodies with lip plates, a status symbol. The lip plates, usually made from clay or wood, are disks they insert in a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both.

"...about 6 to 12 months before marriage, a young (Mursi) woman has her lip pierced by her mother or one of her kinswomen, usually at around the age of 15 to 18. The initial piercing is done as an incision of the lower lip of 1 to 2 cm length, and a simple wooden peg is inserted. After the wound has healed, which usually takes between two and three weeks, the peg is replaced with a slightly bigger one. At a diameter of about 4 cm, the first lip plate made of clay is inserted. Every woman crafts her own plate and takes pride in including some ornamentation. The final diameter ranges from about 8 cm to over 20 cm.--Wikipedia.

You can view Carey's entire presentation at https://youtu.be/yxMj3c-kcxE.

Known for his innovative and exemplary teaching, Carey received the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Entomological Society of America for his technological innovations, creativity and excellence in the UC system and beyond. He has taught video instruction methods for the 9-university Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, including Nairobi and Uganda for seven years.

Carey researches insect demography, mortality dynamics, health span and aging. He and population biologist Deborah Roach of the University of Virginia are authors of a soon-to-be-published book Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods (Princeton).

A member of the UC Davis since 1980, Carey directed the federally funded program, “Evolutionary Ecology of Lifespan,” from 2003 to 2012, with projects ranging from the evolutionary of aging and the biodemography of nematodes and fruit flies to the longevity of red deer and soay sheep in Scotland and the health span in the Tsimani people of Bolivia.

Will he be presenting the African odyssey program again? Yes, he's willing to share. “The main purpose of my talk is to enlighten everyone about the remarkable—and moderately priced—travel opportunities in eastern and southern Africa,” Carey said. Contact him at jrcarey@ucdavis.edu.