JOHN LIGHTON'S HOME PAGE
(aka John R.B. Lighton, J R B Lighton)

Welcome, surfer. I'm an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UNLV. A comparative physiologist by trade, an instrumentalist and general tinkerer by avocation, and an entrepreneur for my livelihood. My research program has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. I can be reached at lighton {at} sablesys dot com, john.lighton {at} unlv.edu or john {at} johnlighton dot org.

As you can tell from the formal nerdly photograph to your right, and particularly if you look closely at the tie, and guess at the tiny object I'm holding (clue: it has six legs), I'm interested in insect physiology and particularly the physiology of ants. I specialize in respiratory physiology, and have strayed far from ants on occasion - to flying insects, other tracheate arthropods - such as solphugids! - and even hummingbirds. For more details, see my research outline. If the geekly portrait is too much for you (it certainly is for me), have a look at some other images.

Some very brief background (for more, see my cv). I was born and raised in South Africa, received various degrees from the University of Cape Town, and left for the USA to study Physiology at UCLA under George Bartholomew in 1984. After stints as an adjunct assistant professor at UCLA and a guest professor at the University of Zurich, I scorned the warnings of my peers and joined the University of Utah's biology department where I stayed for four years, building up an internationally recognized research program in arthropod physiology with the help of funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Packard Foundation. I have published over 60 scientific papers since 1985 (see my publications list if you're interested) and am now proud to be a U.S. citizen.

In late 1995 I resigned from my position at the University of Utah rather than succumb to pressure to conceal alleged fraud and theft. I took on a visiting position at UNLV. I retain my institutional affiliation at UNLV but do my research off-site.

I've moved on to a better life in a state where the law is upheld. In Las Vegas, I particularly appreciate the proximity to the Mojave Desert. I've always been fascinated and enchanted by deserts, and in fact deserts are the reason I took up integrative rather than molecular biology (you just don't get excuses to spend time in deserts if you're in the cloning game, much as I enjoyed it). My favorite field station, at which my lab has done quite a lot of work over the years, is the admirably bizarre Zzyzx.

To the John Lighton Lab home page....