Rate My Professor Lars Schmitz

Lars Schmitz is the Kravis Professor of Integrated Sciences: Biology in the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. He holds a Ph.D. in Geology with an emphasis in Paleobiology from the University of California, Davis (2008), where his dissertation focused on inferring diel activity patterns in fossil archosaurs using eyeball morphology and visual optics, and a Diplom (M.Sc. equivalent) in Geology and Paleontology from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany (2003). His academic career includes serving as Associate Professor of Biology in the W.M. Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College, and Pitzer College from 2018 to 2023, Assistant Professor there from 2009 to 2018, and postdoctoral researcher positions at UC Davis in the Departments of Geology and Evolution and Ecology from 2008 to 2012. Schmitz has been a Research Associate at the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County since 2014.

Schmitz's research specializes in functional morphology, evolutionary paleobiology, and sensory evolution, particularly vision and orbit morphology in dinosaurs, marine reptiles, and early vertebrates. Key publications include 'Nocturnality in dinosaurs inferred from scleral ring and orbit morphology' (Science, 2011), 'Early giant reveals faster evolution of large size in ichthyosaurs than in cetaceans' (Science, 2021), 'Evolution of vision and hearing modalities in theropod dinosaurs and specialized nocturnality in a long-lived lineage' (Science, 2021), 'Massive increase in visual range preceded the origin of terrestrial vertebrates' (PNAS, 2017), and 'A macropredatory ichthyosaur from the Middle Triassic and the origin of modern trophic networks' (PNAS, 2013). He has received the Faculty Scholarship Award from Claremont McKenna College (2023), National Geographic Research and Exploration Grants (2008, 2010, 2014), NSF MRI grant as co-PI (2014), DFG Research Fellowship (2009-2011), and DAAD Doctoral Stipend (2005-2007). His contributions advance understanding of sensory adaptations and macroevolutionary patterns in vertebrates.