John D. Kirwan

Researcher

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

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 Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.

Run and Hide: Visual Performance in a Brittle Star

Spatial vision was recently reported in a brittle star, Ophiomastix wendtii, which lacks discrete eyes, but little is known about its …

Lauren Sumner-Rooney, John D. Kirwan, Carsten Lüter, Esther Ullrich-Lüter

Chicken colour discrimination depends on background colour

How well can a bird discriminate between two red berries on a green background? The absolute threshold of colour discrimination is set …

Peter Olsson, Robin D. Johnsson, James J. Foster, John D. Kirwan, Olle Lind, Almut Kelber

Extraocular Vision in a Brittle Star Is Mediated by Chromatophore Movement in Response to Ambient Light

Almost all animals can sense light, but only those with spatial vision can ‘‘see.’’ Conventionally, this was restricted to animals …

Lauren Sumner-Rooney, John D. Kirwan, Elijah Lowe, Esther Ullrich-Lüter

A millipede compound eye mediating low-resolution vision

Millipedes are a species-rich and ancient arthropod clade which typically bear a pair of lateral compound eyes with a small number of …

John D. Kirwan, Dan-E. Nilsson

Orienting to polarized light at night - matching lunar skylight to performance in a nocturnal beetle

For polarized light to inform behaviour, the typical range of degrees of polarization observable in the animal’s natural …

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

See all publications

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 Nov 22, 2020 statistics, data

Recent Posts

Object Tracking

I have looked at a few automated object tracking methods, which I have summarized below, which track objects from video recordings and which are suitable for animal behavioural experiments. (Specifically, I have been looking for one to track a single animal across the flat circular base of an arena.

Last updated on Jun 8, 2021 5 min read

International Postdoc funding available in the EU

Here is a summary of some of the funding opportunities in the EU in for international early career researchers who have gotten their PhD. This is specifically in relation to the Life Sciences, but many have wider applicability.

Last updated on Apr 13, 2021 2 min read

101 things to do through the curfew

Those of you who are de jure / facto under curfew may find things tedious with the current pandemic. If so, feel free to peruse this list for things to do:

Last updated on Nov 16, 2020 2 min read

Ambling in the Andes of the Equator - kit-list

Drawing on a longstanding aspiration, I visited the Andes of Ecuador this year. I divided my time between backpacking, multi-day trekking, and reaching peaks as well as visiting friends and other activities.

Last updated on Nov 16, 2020 16 min read

Analyzing orientation behaviour in animals using Stan

Here is a link to my talk: Analyzing orientation behaviour in animals using Stan at the Bayes@Lund conference at Lund University, Sweden in 2018. Thanks to everyone involved for a wonderful conference.

Last updated on Nov 16, 2020 1 min read

Contact