Dan Riskin

Dan Riskin was born in 1975 in Edmonton, Canada. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Alberta (BSc, 1997) his masters at York University (MSc, 2000), and his doctorate at Cornell University (PhD, 2006). He did postdoctoral research at Brown University (2006–10) and at the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology of Boston University (2006–07). His work is mostly focused on the biomechanics of bat locomotion — the physics behind crawling on the ground, jumping into flight, flapping through the sky, and landing on the ceiling. Dan has traveled around the world for his research and won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is the author or coauthor of more than twenty refereed articles in such journals as the Journal of Experimental Biology, the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, and Nature.

Dan’s first work for TV was on the Emmy-nominated History Channel show Evolve. Soon afterward, he contributed to Animal Planet’s Monsters Inside Me, and because of the success of that show, he appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Dan has also appeared on Human Nature (Discovery Science) and Bedbug Apocalypse (Animal Planet).

In 2011, Dan left academics to become the co-host of the world’s only daily science program, Daily Planet, on Discovery Canada. He is a regular guest on Canada AM, CTV NewsChannel, and CTV National News in Canada, and in the USA on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.