Faculty
Jared Ali
Acting Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology; Director of the Center for Chemical Ecology; Associate Professor of Entomology
Behavior and chemical ecology of multi-trophic interactions, including plant responses to below-ground herbivory and nematode. Insect community ecology, chemical ecology, and coevolution. Trophic cascades, above- and below-ground interactions,…
Daniel Allen
Assistant Professor of Aquatic Ecology The relationship between community structure and ecosystem processes in rivers and streams, and factors which influence this relationship across local, landscape, and regional spatial scales.
Julian Avery
Assistant Research Professor Conservation biology, invasive species ecology, effects of human disturbance on biodiversity, illegal reptilian wildlife trade, animal coloration and the ecology of visual signals.
Paul Bartell
Associate Professor of Avian Biology The regulation of biological clocks in birds at the systems level.
Iliana Baums
Professor of Biology Molecular ecology and evolution of reef invertebrates.
Guilherme Becker
Associate Professor of Biology
Host-microbial interactions, landscape genetics and the ecology of global change stressors. Building models and conducting field and laboratory experiments to understand the biotic and abiotic mechanisms driving wildlife disease dynamics in both…
Terrence Bell
Assistant Professor of Phytobiomes Soil and root-associated microbiomes, microbiome assembly, microbiome manipulation, disturbance.
Nita Bharti
Huck Early Career Professor; Assistant Professor of Biology
The Bharti lab investigates the underlying links between humans, pathogens, and the environment. We work to identify the mechanisms that give rise to heterogeneities in host disease burden and risk across scales, across spatial and temporal scales.…
Douglas Bird
Associate Professor of Anthropology Livelihood decisions and habitats, exploring the dynamics of human subsistence practices, their role in ecosystem function, and their archaeological implications in Australia and Western North America.
Rebecca Bird
Professor of Anthropology
Gender division of labor in hunting and gathering, cooperation, costly signaling, indigenous conservation/land management, and fire ecology, drawing on theory, models, and methods from behavioral ecology and landscape ecology to answer questions…
Ottar Bjornstad
Huck Chair of Epidemiology; Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Biology; Adjunct Professor in Statistics Population ecology and population dynamics with particular emphasis on mathematical and computational aspects
Elizabeth Boyer
Professor of Water Resources Hydrology, Biogeochemistry, Water Quality, and Atmospheric Deposition.
Margaret Brittingham
Professor of Wildlife Resources Avian ecology; avian response to oil and gas exploration and development; effects of habitat fragmentation on bird populations; managing wildlife on private land
Mary Ann Bruns
Professor of Soil Microbiology and Biogeochemistry Compositions and functions of microbiomes in agriculture, ecological restoration, and engineered systems for ecosystem service provision and climate change adaptation
Franny Buderman
Assistant Professor of Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Quantitative ecology, with a focus on the demography, space-use, and movement of wildlife.
Liana Burghardt
Huck Early Career Chair of Root Biology and Rhizosphere Interactions; Assistant Professor of Plant Science
Plant-microbe-climate interactions; the evolution and ecology of legumes and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia; the genomic basis and environment dependence of root, nodule, and mutualism traits; GWAS/transcriptomics/evolve & resequence…
Eric Burkhart
Program Director, Appalachian Botany and Ethnobotany, Shaver's Creek Environmental Center
Isabella Cattadori
Professor of Biology Immuno-epidemiology of co-infection, how host immunity modulates parasite interactions and transmission and how host molecular processes explain the dynamics of infection at the population level.
Charles Andrew Cole
Professor of Landscape Architecture Ecosystem ecology: wetlands, hydrology, restoration, seed banks, plant communities, historical ecology.
Estelle Couradeau
Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Science & Management
Shannon Cruz
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences Processes of persuasion and social influence in risk and environmental contexts.
Duane Diefenbach
Adjunct Professor of Wildlife Ecology Wildlife ecology, estimation of population parameters, and harvest management of game populations.
Francisco Dini-Andreote
Assistant Professor of Plant Science Microbiome, plant-microbe interactions, and community ecology. Harnessing the plant microbiome to enhance protection against biotic and abiotic stresses.
Patrick Drohan
Professor of Pedology Soil formation and biogeochemistry due to land use and ecosystem change; soil and water degradation, and the remediation of soil physical and chemical properties in urban environments.
David Eissenstat
Professor of Woody Plant Physiology Plant physiological ecology. Root biology and physiology. Plant carbon and nutrient economies.
Matthew Ferrari
Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics; Huck Career Development Professor; Professor of Biology Public Health, Quantitative Epidemiology, Population Ecology, Statistics, Computational and Mathematical Biology
Sagan Friant
Assistant Professor of Anthropology Evolutionary anthropology of human health, disease ecology, nutrition, socio-ecological systems, bushmeat hunting, Nigeria.
Sarah Goslee
Adjunct Associate Professor of Agronomy, USDA-ARS Landscape diversity in agricultural areas; Taxonomic and functional diversity and grassland management; Multivariate and spatial analysis for ecological data.
Christina Grozinger
Director of the Center for Pollinator Research; Director of the Insect Biodiversity Center; Publius Vergilius Maro Professor and Huck Scholar of Entomology Genomics of social behavior and health in bees
Jill Hamilton
Director of the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics; Associate Professor Genomic basis of climate adaptation, conservation, and restoration genetics.
Sara Hermann
Assistant Professor of Arthropod Ecology and Trophic Interactions
Heather Hines
Associate Professor of Biology and Entomology
Applies genomic, transcriptomic, phylogenomic, and bioinformatic approaches to study the evolution and genetics of diverse traits in bees and wasps. This includes study of mimetic color diversification, plant gall induction, novel morphologies,…
Kevin Hockett
Huck Early Career Chair; Assistant Professor of Microbial Ecology Biological Control, Biology and Ecology of Plant-Microbe and Plant-Environment Interactions, Microbial Ecology and Population Biology Faculty
Peter Hudson
Former Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Willaman Professor of Biology Population dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife and the dynamics of parasite community structure.
David Hughes
Huck Chair in Global Food Security; Professor of Entomology and of Biology Parasite manipulation of host behavior
Vivek Kapur
Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Huck Distinguished Chair in Global Health; Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases The basic mechanisms by which pathogenic microbes successfully infect, colonize, and cause disease in their hosts.
Margot Kaye
Professor of Forest Ecology Vegetation dynamics; global change ecology; interactions among vegetation, climate and human land use; dendrochronology; disturbance history; environmental change.
Jason Kaye
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology; Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry Ecosystem ecology; global change biology; biogeochemistry of nitrogen and carbon cycling in managed and unmanaged ecosystems.
Jason Keagy
Assistant Research Professor of Wildlife Behavioral Ecology Cognitive ecology (with studies at genome, individual, and species levels). I am particularly interested in applications for solving wildlife management problems
Armen Kemanian
Professor of Production Systems and Modeling Agricultural Systems, Agricultural and Natural Systems Modeling, Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling, Bioenergy Systems, Coupled Hydrologic and Nutrient Modeling, and Plant Competition
David Kennedy
Assistant Professor of Biology Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with particular interest in how disease dynamics influence pathogen emergence, virulence evolution, and drug or vaccine resistance.
Tracy Langkilde
Professor of Biology; Dean of the Eberly College of Science The interface of ecology and evolution to understand how an organism's traits are matched to its environment and responds to novel selective pressures imposed by global environmental change, and the consequences of this adaptation.
Jesse Lasky
Associate Professor of Biology Ecological and evolutionary genomics, genetic and ecophysiological basis of adaptation to environmental stress, evolutionary ecology of biological complexity.
Laura Leites
Associate Research Professor of Quantitative Forest Ecology Adaptation to climate in forest trees, seed movement under a changing climate, forest ecosystem modeling.
Margarita Lopez-Uribe
Associate Professor of Entomology How environmental change and human management shape bee health and long-term persistence of their populations in agricultural areas.
Jennifer Macalady
Director of the Ecology Institute; Professor of Geosciences
Microbial interactions with earth materials: soils, sediments, solutes, atmospheric gases, minerals, and rocks. Early evolution of Earth’s biosphere, including photosynthesis and sulfur cycling. Microbial ecology, environmental omics, microbial…
Erika Machtinger
Assistant Professor of Entomology Veterinary entomology, including vector-borne diseases. Focus is on ecology and behavior associated with host-parasite interactions to improve or develop new control methods.
Carolyn Mahan
Professor of Biology The study of biodiversity in threatened ecosystems, the effects of human-modified landscapes on wildlife, and behavioral ecology of sciurids. Dr. Mahan teaches introductory biology, environmental studies, field ecology, and evolution.
James Marden
Associate Director of Operations, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Professor of Biology How physiological variation within species affects their ecology and evolution. Primarily with insects, but recently also with plants, and a particular interest in allelic variation in the pathogen resistance genes of tropical trees.
Lauren McPhillips
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
David Miller
Associate Professor of Wildlife Population Ecology Population ecology, quantitative ecology, avian and amphibian ecology, conservation decision analysis, life-history evolution.
George Perry
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Bioinformatics and Genomics; Associate Professor of Anthropology and Biology Anthropological genomics, paleogenomics, human body size evolution, parasite evolution, and evolutionary medicine.
Andrew Read
Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Entomology; Eberly Professor of Biotechnology The ecology and evolutionary genetics of infectious disease.
Tanya Renner
Assistant Professor of Entomology Evolution of chemical and structural defense. Molecular evolution, evolutionary genomics, and transcriptomics. Origins and evolution of carnivorous plants.
Autumn Sabo
Assistant Professor of Biology
How anthropogenic stressors affect plant communities, conservation, and restoration options. Recent work has focused on how deer and silvicultural techniques impact forest understories, with future projects likely extending to rare and invasive plant…
Rudolf Schilder
Associate Professor of Entomology and Biology Comparative & ecological physiology of insect and mammalian locomotion.
Katriona Shea
Professor of Biology; Alumni Professor in the Biological Sciences The use of ecological theory in population management.
Erica Smithwick
Professor of Geography Understanding how a wide range of disturbances, especially fire, affect ecosystem function at landscape scales.
Howie Weiss
Professor of Biology
I am a Biomathematican and very recently moved to Penn State from Georgia Tech (I also had appointments at Emory in Public Health and PBEE). Bacteria and their viruses (phages) provide a way to study ecological and evolutionary processes in real time…
Fang (Rose) Zhu
Assistant Professor of Entomology Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of insects’ adaptation to chemical stresses in their environment.
Karl Zimmerer
Professor of Geography
Land use and agricultural change/global change, Economic development/globalization/neoliberalism, Nature-society and human-environment theory, Environmental impacts (biodiversity/soils/water/conservation), Food/producer-consumer…