National Research Tomsk State University will host “Animal population ecology” international conference in the memory of Igor Aleksandrovich Shilov for the second time now. The first conference was organized in September 2006 and brought together 200 participants from the leading scientific institutions of Russia, Australia, Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine.
I.A. Shilov (1921–2001) is a RAS member and one of the most prominent theoreticians of population ecology in Russia as well as one of the founders of ecological physiology, a concept of spatial-ethological organization and vertebrae population systems. Ecological physiology lab, which he founded at the MSU Zvenigorod biostation in 1950s, became a venue for field experimental studies on physiological mechanisms of animal adaptation. Series of studies on the mechanisms of thermoregulation in birds by Igor Aleksandrovich and his colleagues became a core of his Doctor of Science thesis and a “Thermoregulation in birds (ecological and physiological essay)” monograph, published after thesis’s defense in the USA.
I.A. Shilov published series of papers uncovering general trajectories and evolution of adaptive responses in the end of 60s. He concentrated on structural and functional organization of animal populations as complex biological systems, as well as on population homeostasis and ecological and physiological mechanisms supporting it, and evolution of ecological adaptation and animal behavior. His innovative approach and study results were published in the “Ecological and physiological bases of population associations in animals” monograph (1977), which later determined academic interests of many scientists and even the whole groups in Russia.
“Ecology” textbook is his fundamental work with its eight editions so far. Igor Aleksandrovich never separated scientific research from teaching ecology in Moscow University, which he was related to all his life. Creation and introduction of unique practical courses on ecological physiology of vertebrae as well as practical courses on ground vertebrae, coupled with “Animal physiological ecology” published training aid and a textbook on ecology altogether determined tremendous contribution of academician I.A. Shilov in setting fundamental educational basis of ecology science. He authored 177 publications, including 11 books.
Igor Aleksandrovich enormously influenced many generations of students and teachers as a model personality. This mostly relates to the alumni and scientists of Tomsk University, which he attended with lectures twice. Those lectures appeared to be true events attracting not only students as main target audience, but a wide range of lecturers of the School of Biology and Soil. No doubt that the ecological and physiological trajectories of studies in TSU were related to those visits, whereas further development was built upon close cooperation with him. With all the width of scientific, pedagogical and organizational interests, coupled with very busy work schedule, Igor Aleksandrovich was an amazingly open and easily approachable person, always eager to consult or review an academic piece of work.
This conference pays tribute to this outstanding scientist, who discovered new horizons in ecology.
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