Biography

I am a life science researcher, interested in invertebrate vision, scientific data analysis and scientific communication. I carried out my doctoral research on spatial vision in simple visual systems at Lund University, Sweden. I am a postdoc at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, working on photodetection in a sea urchin. Find my CV here.

Interests
  • Invertebrate vision
  • Visually-guided behaviour
  • Animal psychophysics
  • Scientific data analysis
Education

  • PhD in Biology (Vision Science), 2018

    Lund University

  • Research M.Sc. in Biology, 2010

    University College Dublin

  • B.Sc. Hons, 2008

    University College Dublin

Skills

Vision science
Scientific data analysis
Scientific writing

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Post-doctoral Researcher
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dorhn
Oct 2019 – Present Naples, Italy
 
 
 
 
 
Project Manager - Vision Research
Lund University
Jun 2019 – Aug 2019 Lund, Sweden
 
 
 
 
 
Doctoral Researcher
Lund University
May 2013 – Jun 2018 Lund, Sweden
Wrote my PhD thesis ‘Spatial Vision in Diverse Invertebrates’ at the Lund Vision Group in Sweden.
 
 
 
 
 
Expedition Assistant Leader
Lowest to Highest for Cancer Expedition
Apr 2013 – May 2013 Solokhumbu, Nepal
Assistant Leader for Expedition to Everest Basecamp.
 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant
Trinity College Dublin
Oct 2012 – Apr 2013 Dublin, Ireland
Ecological modelling using R.

Certificates

Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics & Applied Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics
Uppsala University Jan 2020 – May 2020
Distinction
Data Analysis with Python
Coursera / IBM Jul 2019
See certificate
Databases and SQL for Data Science
Coursera / IBM Jun 2019
See certificate
Writing in the Sciences
Stanford Online Apr 2019
Distinction
See certificate
Mountain Leader Award
Mountain Leader Training Scotland Oct 2011
See certificate

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Spine and sight: The sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus can see
Sep 23, 2021
Analyzing orientation behaviour in animals using Stan
Apr 23, 2018

Software

plotaround: Simple plotting of angles on a circle
Use this shiny app to plot a series of angles on a circle and include summary statistics. This shiny web app depends on the ‘circular’ package and the basic plotting function was written by James J.
Last updated on Jan 14, 2022 statistics, data

Projects

Urchin Photodetection
In my current role at SZN, I participate in a project aimed at uncovering how a sea urchin can see without discrete eyes. My role has included measuring the spatial resolving power of the adult animal’s vision.
Urchin Photodetection

Recent Publications

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Tianshu Li, John D. Kirwan, Maria Ina Arnone, Dan-Eric Nilsson, Giancarlo La Camera (2022). A model of decentralized vision in the sea urchin Diadema africanum. bioRxiv.

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Lauren Sumner-Rooney, John D. Kirwan, Carsten Lüter, Esther Ullrich-Lüter (2021). Run and Hide: Visual Performance in a Brittle Star. Journal of Experimental Biology.

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Peter Olsson, Robin D. Johnsson, James J. Foster, John D. Kirwan, Olle Lind, Almut Kelber (2020). Chicken colour discrimination depends on background colour. Journal of Experimental Biology.

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John D. Kirwan, Dan-E. Nilsson (2019). A millipede compound eye mediating low-resolution vision. Vision Research.

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James J Foster, John D Kirwan, Basil El Jundi, Jochen Smolka, Lana Khaldy, Emily Baird, Marcus J Byrne, Dan-Eric Nilsson, Sönke Johnsen, Marie Dacke (2019). Orienting to polarized light at night - matching lunar skylight to performance in a nocturnal beetle. Journal of Experimental Biology.

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Popular Topics

"*Echolocation" "*Evolution" "*Hearing" "Animals" "behavior" "color change" "Diplopoda" "echinoderms" "Euperipatoides rowelli" "extraocular vision" "Eye" "Genetic" "Visually guided behaviour" angles Bayes behaviour circular curfew Ecuador visual ecology

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