Contributions and Thanks
I acknowledge
the assistance of the following individuals and organizations
in conducting and disseminating this research - Thank you - LL
Erik Scully, Ph.D.; Department of Biological Sciences; Towson University - Dr. Scully has worked with me to make the Critters! project a great success. Thank you for all of your assistance over the years.
Critters! was programmed on 400MHz G4, 800MHz iBook, and dual-2GHz G5 PowerMacs® in FutureBASIC® by STAZ Software, Inc. and in C++ in Apple's Xcode® IDE. Programming assistance was provided by Farooq Mela, Craig Plunkett, and Tom Bartolucci. The OpenGL® game engine was based upon a Lost Minds game engine by Lars Gafvert (with Chris Stasny, aka. Staz, and Andy Gariepy of Staz Software) Lars Gafvert contribution of a basic game engine allowed me to program the core logic of Critters! in a mere four months! Cheers to Lars!!!! Thank you. An OS 9 Quicktime® code example and assistnace with porting the sample to OS X was provided by Robert Covington of Artly There, Inc.
The paper 'Evolution of digital organisms at high mutation rates leads to survival of the flattest' published in Nature (2001, Vol. 412, pp. 331-333) was inspirational for our Critters! project. Thanks to Claus O. Wilke, Ph.D. and his colleagues for conducting important research in this area and writing so eloquently on the topic in Nature.
The Sandra S. Pieper Foundation - Great support was provided by this foundation for needy researchers. Thanks, Mom!
Department of Biological Sciences; Towson University (Chair: Richard Seigel, Ph.D.) Numerous professors have contributed to my education and experience in the life sciences. I think their effort shines through in the Critters! project. I especially thank members of my M.S. thesis committee: Susan Gresens, Ph.D. and Joel Snodgrass, Ph.D. I'd also like to give a shout out to my teaching mentor: Larry Wimmers, Ph.D. The Biology Department also provided funds for my trip to the American Society of Naturalists meeting in July, 2002.
Brian Dolge, Macintosh Laboratory Manager, and Bridget Sullivan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Art Department; Towson University (Chair: James Flood, Ph.D.) Research results were obtained by running the Critters! model simultaneously on 16 G4 Macintosh computers over four days in late May, 2002. Erik Scully, Ph.D. and I greatfully acknowledge the support of Brian Dolge and the Art Department on the Critters! project.
Sharon Mollock, Darcel Cobb, and staff; Interlibrary Loan Office; Towson University - Numerous publications were found and delivered by the ILL Office. We thank Sharon and Darcel for their hard work and generous assistance.
Academic Programs Office; Faculty Development; Towson University (Associate Vice President for Academic Programs: Dean Esslinger, Ph.D.) A travel grant was awarded to me by Faculty Development to present the results of this research at the national meeting of the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) in Banff, Alberta, Canada in July, 2002.
Matthew Bazar - Thanks for working up all of the statistics, graphs, and tables for this project. What a pal!
Ken Karakotsios and Michael Bremer (the developers of SimLife®) - Thanks to Ken Karakotsios for helpful advice.
Karl Sims & Marshall Mathers - Pure INSPIRATION!
Silicon Graphics, Inc. - OpenGL
SimLife is a registered trademark of Maxis, Inc. PowerMac and Quicktime are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. FutureBASIC is a registered trademark of STAZ Software, Inc.