biology

Hillary Maddin

Hillary Maddin is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hillary Maddin rather than just read about it. In short: Hillary Catherine Maddin is a Canadian paleontologist and developmental biologist known for her work on development in extinct and extant amphibians. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University.

Key takeaways

Hillary Maddin belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hillary Maddin to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hillary Maddin from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hillary Catherine Maddin is a Canadian paleontologist and developmental biologist known for her work on development in extinct and extant amphibians. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University.

Academic and professional background Maddin obtained her B.Sc. in biology from the University of Toronto (1999-2004). She went on to also complete her M.Sc. degree at the University of Toronto (2004-2006) researching caseid synapsids under the supervision of Robert Reisz, followed by a Ph.D. degree (2006-2011) exploring the morphology and evolution of caecilians at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Anthony Russell and Jason Anderson. Maddin was awarded the highly competitive NSERC postdoctoral fellowship, which she used to fund a position at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Harvard University in Cambridge, MA (2011-2013), where she was supervised by Jim Hanken and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, which she used to fund a position at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON (2013-2015), where she was supervised by Claudia Schröder-Adams. Since then, she has held her current position as a faculty member at Carleton.

Academic contributions Maddin's research encompasses a wide range of topics, primarily related to developmental biology using amphibians as a model system and exploration of morphological and phylogenetic patterns of Paleozoic tetrapods. She has published on a variety of groups, including a variety of synapsids, temnospondyls, and lepospondyls. Much of her research in this area is directed towards anatomy of the braincase and other internal structures, which extends to her work on extant amphibians, primarily examining caecilians. She has also published several studies on the African clawed frog and the axolotl, both a model study system. Her research has been published in leading scientific journals, including Biological Reviews, Nature Communications, and Nature Ecology & Evolution. Maddin has contributed to the naming of several new extinct taxa, outlined below:

Maddin has received numerous federal- or provincial-level grant awards to fund her research, including an Early Researcher Award (ERA) from the Ontario provincial government ($100,000 CAD), a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) award from the Canadian federal government ($250,000 CAD), and an NSERC Discovery Grant ($40,000 CAD), and her lab's research has been covered by leading news outlets. She also serves as one of three managing editors for the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hillary Maddin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hillary Maddin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hillary Maddin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hillary Maddin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hillary Maddin

In research: Hillary Maddin appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hillary Maddin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hillary Maddin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Canadian paleontologists, Developmental biologists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hillary Maddin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hillary Maddin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hillary Maddin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hillary Maddin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hillary Maddin in simple terms?

Why does Hillary Maddin matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hillary Maddin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hillary Maddin.