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Professor Peter Narins
1996 Faculty Prize RecipientPeter Narins joined the Department of Biology at UCLA in 1978 following service in the Peace Corps. He now holds a joint appoointment in Physiological Science and Biology. In 1981, he initiated the overseas field biology program through which he established his unique teaching method to train and develop future professional biologists. He takes more than a dozen UCLA undergraduates for three weeks to a tropical rain forest in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, or Thailand for instruction and hands-on field research. The students design and carry out projects on animal communication.
Professor Narins is studying the mechanisms of hearing in animals, primarily in several of the more than 4,000 species of frogs. Among the questions that he explores is how frogs are able to filter out the sounds that are biologically important from the background noise in their environment. This research could lead to better hearing aids for the more than 20 million Americans who are deaf.
Professor Narins received the Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 1990. His research is funded by the National Institute of Health and his numerous awards include Guggenheim, Humboldt, and Fulbright Fellowships. In addition to the extensive and invaluable contributions that Professor Narins makes to his students and to his science, he is selfless in his service on numerous committees in support of the university.
