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Professor Wayne Leibel and biology major Christina Chen '11 examine cichlids in the aquarium in Kunkel Hall.
Throughout his career, Professor Wayne Leibel‘s hobbies and scientific interests have often overlapped.
Since childhood, Leibel has raised tropical fish, maintaining large collections in aquariums in his home. A family of tropical freshwater fish called cichlids (pronounced SICK-lids) has most captured his interest, both for their interesting behaviors and their beauty. Cichlids are one of Leibel’s main areas of research, and he incorporates much of this work into his courses.
The American Cichlid Association has made Leibel a Guy Jordan Fellow, which honors those who have made significant lifetime contributions to the advancement of the knowledge and appreciation of cichlids.
Leibel, Kreider Professor of Biology, is the eighth person to be given the honor since the first recipient was named in 1987. “I am humbled by and proud of this recognition for what for me has been a labor of love, one that will hopefully continue for years to come,” he says.
The complicated behavior of cichlids is one reason for Leibel’s particular interest in them versus other aquarium fish. Cichlids are parental, guarding and raising their offspring, which is unusual for fish that typically scatter large numbers of fertilized eggs. Because of this behavior, they have evolved elaborate colorations and courtship behaviors, and have speciated dramatically. There are about 2,500 species, with a wide variety of colors and patterns.
In the classroom, Leibel uses cichlids as an example of explosive, rapid evolution and speciation. He talks about them in his Evolutionary Biology course, as well as in his senior seminar on Molecular Evolution. He is working with biology major Christina Chen ’11 (Westfield, N.J.) on female territoriality in the “convict” cichlid. Convicts are medium-sized black and white striped cichlids from Central America that serve as a model system for behavioral studies, particularly concerning territoriality and mate choice. Other students have also done honors and independent research with Leibel on cichlids.
“As a trained scientist, my interest in cichlids transcended the obvious aesthetic charm of these animals to their evolution and behavior. My contribution to the hobby has been to make understandable through my writing the science of cichlids to people who might otherwise not appreciate it. My contribution to the science of cichlids has been as a conduit for hobbyists to contribute their observations to the cichlid science community,” he says.
Leibel has been teaching at Lafayette since 1983, and served nine years as head of the biology department. He helped create the neuroscience program along with Provost Wendy Hill and other colleagues from the biology and psychology departments.
Leibel has published about 250 articles on cichlid biology, mainly for popular science magazines, and has written two books on new world cichlids. He has also been an invited speaker at conventions and workshops throughout the country. He has edited the American Cichlid Association’s journal for eight years, and has served on the association’s board of trustees many times, including twice as chairman. Most recently, he has been in charge of administering the association’s yearly grant program that funds cichlid research, primarily helping doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to complete their studies.