Faculty

OEB brings together more than 75 faculty, providing critical mass needed for effective graduate training. Our faculty are drawn from 10 departments at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and from across the Five College System (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges), as well as from off-campus institutions. OEB faculty are engaged in cutting edge research, with research clusters in four broad areas:

Animal Behavior

Behavioral ecology, communication, learning

Ecology

Community ecology, population ecology, landscape ecology, conservation biology

Evolutionary Biology

Evolution, phylogenetics, population genetics, molecular evolution

Organismal Biology

Physiology, morphology, paleontology

All OEB faculty are listed below. To help applicants to our graduate program locate a faculty sponsor, the faculty list can be filtered by four broad research areas. A list of faculty who are activiely seeking graduate students can be found HERE

Name	Research Interests
Lynn Adler Professor, Biology	Ecology and evolution of insect-plant interactions
Jesse Bellemare Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College	Plant ecology, biogeography and evolution
Jeffrey L. Blanchard Associate Professor, Department of Biology	Microbial cellular and community networks; influence of environmental change on the evolution of molecular processes; systems biology; bioinformatics
Bethany A. Bradley Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Biogeography and spatial ecology of terrestrial plant invasions
Jill L. Bubier Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, Mount Holyoke College	Carbon cycling in northern wetlands
John P. Buonaccorsi Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical theory, methods and applcations, Quantitative ecology
Theodore Castro–Santos Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology	Biomechanics and Behavior of Migratory Fishes; Bioengineering of Fish Passage Structures
Brian S. Cheng Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Marine global change ecology and the dynamics of predator-prey interactions
Daniel R. Cooley Professor of Plant Pathology, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Epidemiology, ecology and sustainable management of plant diseases
Cristina Cox Fernandes Adjunct Research Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes, Department of Biology	Ecology and evolutionary diversity of neotropical freshwater fishes, particularly within the Amazon River
Andy J. Danylchuk Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Fish conservation, recreational fisheries, sustainable aquaculture
Kristen M DeAngelis Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology	Community ecology and physiology of soil microbes, climate change, plant-soil interactions
Stephen DeStefano Research Professor of Environmental Conservation USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Leader	Urban and suburban wildlife, forest wildlife, and human-wildlife interactions
Graziella V. DiRenzo Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of Environmental Conservation Assistant Unit Leader of Wildlife U. S. Geological Survey MA Cooperative Research Unit	Quantitative ecology, population dynamics, applied ecology
Joseph S. Elkinton Professor of Environmental Conservation	Population dynamics and biological control of invasive forest insects
John Finn Professor of Environmental Conservation	Network Analysis of Acoustic Telemetry
Alexander R. Gerson Assistant Professor, Biology	Integrative ecological physiology of birds, energetics, water balance, bird migration
Barry Goodell Research Professor, Department of Microbiology	Fungal biochemical mechanisms involved in human disease, and also involved in the degradation of lignocellulose biomass and xenobiotics
Evan Grant Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Conservation Research Wildlife Biologist, Conte Anadromous Fish Lab	Ecology and management of amphibian populations and habitat
Curtice R. Griffin Professor and Department Head of Environmental Conservation	Wildlife ecology and conservation
Rachel Hestrin Assistant Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Plant-microbe interactions, biogeochemistry, ecosystem response to change, sustainable agriculture
Martha Hoopes Professor, Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College	Spread dynamics, impacts, and lag times in invasion ecology, as well as metacommunity dynamics, particularly for plants and herbivores.
Peter W. Houlihan Senior Lecturer in Biology	Animal Behavior, Vertebrate Ecology, and Conservation Biology
Adrian Jordaan Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Ecosystems, modeling, tagging, movement, trophic dynamics, diadromous, marine, fisheries, historical ecology
Jason M. Kamilar Associate Professor of Anthropology	Comparative biology of primates and other mammals
David King Adjunct Research Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation Research Wildlife Biologist USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, Amherst	Wildlife ecology and conservation
Lisa Komoroske Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Conservation genomics and ecophysiology in marine and freshwater ecosystems
Michael L. Lavine Emeritus Professor, Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical Theory and Methods
Susannah B. Lerman Adjunct Research Professor, Dept. of Environmental Conservation	Urban and suburban ecology, wildlife conservation, and citizen science
Benjamin Letcher Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation Section Leader, Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center	Population ecology of stream fishes
Rachel A. Levin Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology, Amherst College	Plant systematics, biogeography and ecology
Meghan Graham MacLean Lecturer of Quantitative Ecology, Department of Environmental Conservation	Aboveground carbon consequences of future land use in New England, Carbon accounting of timber from current harvest trends in Massachusetts, Modeling direct and indirect impacts of forest insects and pathogens, and Inclusive pedagogy in quantitative undergraduate biology
Kevin McGarigal Professor of Environmental Conservation	Landscape ecology, ecosystem management, wildlife ecology
Jill Miller Professor of Biology, Amherst College	Ecology and evolution of plant reproductive systems, molecular phylogenetic systematics, population and evolutionary genetics, hybridization and speciation
Toni Lyn Morelli Research Ecologist, Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Environmental Conservation	Climate change ecology, montane and boreal wildlife, and decision analysis and translational ecology for climate adaptation
Keith H. Nislow Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation Research Fishery Biologist, USDA Forest Service	Ecology and conservation biology of stream fishes and invertebrates
Klaus Nüsslein Professsor of Microbiology	Microbial ecology of terrestrial and aquatic environments
Adam H. Porter Associate Professor of Biology Admissions Committee Chair, OEB	Evolutionary biology; hybridization, introgression & speciation; ecological genetics; evolution of regulatory genetic pathways; computer and mathematical modeling; invasion and range expansion; insects, especially butterflies and moths
Charles Ross Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Hampshire College	Ecological and evolutionary genetics of hybrid zones and speciation
Allison H. Roy Research Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Freshwater ecology, fish and macroinvertebrates, urban ecology, conservation
Tristram Seidler Extension Assistant Professor, Biology	Plant ecology, plant diversity, invasive plants, climate change
David A. Sela Associate Professor, Department of Food Science	Nutrition, human milk, gut microbiome, systems biology, host-microbe interactions/co-evolution, translational research
Paul R Sievert Research Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Conservation biology, physiological ecology and biostatistics
L. David Smith Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program	Ecology and evolution of marine predator-prey interactions
Michelle Staudinger Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Science Coordinator, DOI Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center	Climate change impacts on coastal biodiversity and trophic relationships
Kristina Stinson Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Plant Ecology, Invasive Plants, Biological Responses to Global Change
Chris Sutherland Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Population, spatial, statistical and applied ecology
Ethan J. Temeles Professor of Biology, Amherst College	Foraging behavior; Territoriality; Intra- and Interspecific competition; Resource partitioning; Mutualism; Coevolution; Sexual dimorphisms and polymorphisms
Paige S. Warren Professor of Environmental Conservation	Urban ecology, human-environment interactions, animal behavior
Tammy L. Wilson Research Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Assistant Unit Leader	Landscape ecology, spatial ecology, wildlife conservation and management, structured decision-making