Welcome to the inaugural Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Mini-Symposium, focused on AI in Biodiversity, an area of great research activity here at UF. AIIRI is delighted to be collaborating with the UF Biodiversity Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History to bring together researchers with a diverse and impressive range of expertise, covering areas such as remote sensing, innovative algorithms, analysis pipelines and infrastructure, bioengineering, and much more. Our goal is not only to highlight the unique strengths of UF in the field of AI in Biodiversity but also to explore the exciting directions we can take moving forward—and, most importantly, how we can get there together.
Chris Malachowsky co-founded the global technology company, NVIDIA, in 1993 and has more than 30 years of experience in the industry. Now retired from day-to-day operations, he serves as a member of the executive staff and a senior technology executive for the company. Based in Santa Clara, CA, the company has pioneered visual computing—the art and science of computer graphics. NVIDIA has dominated in the area of high-performance graphics processors (GPUs), which act as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world, as well as aid in the translation and application of big data and data science. NVIDIA’s field has expanded to encompass video games, movie production, product design, medical diagnosis, scientific research and, most recently, modern artificial intelligence (AI). Malachowsky has been instrumental in managing, defining and driving the company’s core technologies as it has grown from a startup to the global leader in visual and parallel computing. As an executive at NVIDIA, he has led numerous functions, including IT, operations and all facets of the company’s product engineering. Most recently, he was responsible for NVIDIA’s world-class research organization, which is chartered with developing the strategic technologies that will help drive the company’s future growth and success. Prior to NVIDIA, Malachowsky held engineering and technical leadership positions at HP and Sun Microsystems. A recognized authority on integrated-circuit design and methodology, he has authored close to 40 patents. Malachowsky earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with high honors from the University of Florida and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Santa Clara University. Both schools have honored him with Distinguished Alumnus awards, and he is a 2019 inductee into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Malachowsky currently serves on the boards of the Computer History Museum and Hiller Aviation Museum in Silicon Valley and previously served on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art & Technology Lab board. Beyond his technical accomplishments, Malachowsky received an Emmy for a film he helped produce that won Best Documentary in 2009. Malachowsky earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in computer science from Santa Clara University. At UF, Malachowsky has been generous in his service, leadership and philanthropy. He serves on the UF Foundation Executive Board, the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board and Engineering West Coast Advisory Board.
Dr. Anuj Karpatne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where he develops data mining and machine learning methods to solve scientific and socially relevant problems. A key focus of Dr. Karpatne’s research is to advance the field of knowledge-guided machine learning for applications in several domains including climate science, hydrology, ecology, geophysics, trait-based biology, mechanobiology, quantum mechanics, and fluid dynamics. He received the NSF CAREEER Award in 2023, the Outstanding New Assistant Professor Award by the College of Engineering at VT in 2022, the Rising Star Faculty Award by the Department of Computer Science at VT in 2021, and the Inaugural Research Fellow by the IS-GEO Research Coordination Network in 2019. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data (TKDD) journal. Dr. Karpatne is also a co-author of the second edition of the textbook, “Introduction to Data Mining”, and the lead editor of the first comprehensive book on “Knowledge-guided Machine Learning”.
Daniele Silvestro, Ph.D.
Computational biologist at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Research Associate at Gothenburg University, Sweden
Daniele is a senior scientist at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Gothenburg University (Sweden), and co-founder of Captain Technologies LTD. His research program centers on advancing evolutionary biology and biodiversity conservation through the development of novel computational methods and AI-powered software, which has resulted in over 120 peer-reviewed publications, including in Science, Nature Sustainability, and PNAS. He has obtained research funding across Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. In his free time, he is an enthusiastic fossil collector and mountaineer.
Symposium Participants
Sergio Balaguera-Reina, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Scientist of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Sergio Balaguera-Reina, a research assistant scientist, is a Colombian marine biologist specializing in conservation biology. Specifically, his lab focuses on understanding how ecological processes are influenced by spatiotemporal attributes and how those affect phylogeographic relationships among species in an anthropogenic world. To answer these questions, Balaguera-Reina uses a combination of methods and technologies derived from fields such as ecology, molecular biology, systematics, statistics and geosciences, to get an integrative view of effects, causes and patterns. His current research interests include using crocodilians (crocodiles and alligators) as ecological indicators in the Greater Everglades, linking population parameters and environmental attributes in a spatiotemporal frame as well as developing conservation and management research of crocodilian populations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Azra Bihorac’s research focuses on developing advanced medical AI technologies to improve patient care in critical and acute settings. As director of the Intelligent Clinical Care Center (IC3), she leads efforts to create intelligent, human-centered health care tools that use digital data to provide personalized care tailored to each patient’s clinical profile. Bihorac’s work involves leveraging extensive clinical and research data from UF Health to innovate in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of critically ill patients.
Stephanie Bohlman conducts research aimed at understanding, conserving and managing forests. Her work is driven by the need to maintain biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and comprehend how forests respond to climate change. Bohlman employs remote sensing techniques to study large spatial scales, using satellite and aerial images to study large areas of tropical forests. Bohlman looks at how different factors, such as species and tree sizes, affect the forest’s health and its ability to absorb carbon. She also examines how human activities impact these forests and aims to find ways to benefit both nature and people. Her work includes studying tree diversity and biomass in tropical agricultural areas, the effects of hydroelectric dams on the environment, and using advanced imaging techniques to learn more about forest biodiversity and structure with a particular focus on tropical forests.
Eben Broadbent, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Forest Ecology and Geomatics
Eben N. Broadbent co-directs the Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab and the GatorEye Unmanned Flying Laboratory Project in the UF School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences. Over the last decade, he has conducted research focusing on the tropics around the world, including the Brazilian, Bolivian, and Peruvian Amazon, Papua Indonesia, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Mexico, California, and New England. He has worked as a research ecologist in the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University; at the Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal in Santa Cruz, Bolivia; and Hudsonia Ltd. at Bard College. He is involved in projects linking social sciences with forest ecology, conservation biology and remote sensing. Among his current projects are investigating feedback between soil fertility and land use decision-making in the context of rapid infrastructure development in the Amazon and linking land use change with water quality and biodiversity in Costa Rica.
Emilio M. Bruna’s research focuses on plant demography and plant-animal interactions in tropical ecosystems, and the structure of scientific institutions and collaborative networks. In addition to his research and teaching, Bruna has also served in numerous leadership positions for the scientific community: He has served on the board of directors of the Dryad Digital Repository, as editor-in-chief of the journal Biotropica, and as past president of the Association for Tropical Biology & Conservation. He is currently secretary of the Ecological Society of America. Bruna and his collaborators have been recognized with the Outstanding Article Award from the International Association for Landscape Ecology, the Julie S. Denslow Prize from the ATBC, and the John L. Harper Prize from the British Ecological Society. He was the 2011 Graduate Advisor & Teacher of the Year for UF’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. In 2022, Bruna was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bruna’s research primarily focuses on understanding the impacts of deforestation and other human activities on tropical ecosystems, particularly in the Amazon and Cerrado regions of Brazil. Bruna investigates how these disturbances affect plant populations and community dynamics. He also studies the factors influencing scientific productivity in Latin America and the role of international collaboration in enhancing the impact of scientific research. His work aims to develop strategies for conserving tropical biodiversity and mitigating the ecological consequences of human activities.
John Davis helps lead the research enterprise at UF/IFAS, supporting faculty in Gainesville and at research and education centers around Florida. Davis specializes in forest ecosystem health, tree-pathogen coevolution and forest genomics. His research focuses on understanding the genetic and ecological factors that contribute to the health and sustainability of forest ecosystems. Davis also oversees operations at the Plant Science Research and Education Unit and the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station.
Jose Dubeux’s research focuses on forages and grassland sciences. Dubeux’s research addresses critical global challenges, including climate change, the need for sustaining or achieving greater soil quality and reduction in the use of fossil-fuel intensive, off-farm inputs. His program’s overall goal is to improve nutrient return and distribution in pastures and increase nutrient use efficiency. This is important not only to reduce the use of fertilizer in situations where nutrients are scarce, but also to diminish nutrient load in the environment when nutrient balance is positive. He has been developing forage production systems with a nitrogen-fixing legume component. Legumes add nitrogen to the system, improving cattle diet and reducing the need to add fertilizer.
Morgan Ernest runs the UF Wading Bird program, which monitors wading bird colonies across an 1,800-square-kilometer area of the Everglades. Ernest specializes in ecology with a focus on understanding how ecological systems change over time. Her research is particularly attentive to long-term ecological dynamics and macroecology, which involves studying patterns and processes at large spatial and temporal scales. Ernest’s work often involves extensive field studies to gather data on ecological communities. She investigates how various factors, such as climate change and human activities, influence the structure and function of these communities over extended periods. Her research aims to improve ecological forecasting, helping predict how ecosystems will respond to different environmental pressures. In addition to her field work, Ernest is committed to advancing the field of ecology through the development and dissemination of open-source software and large ecological datasets.
S.Luke Flory, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Invasion Science Institute
Luke Flory’s research focuses on the mechanisms and impacts of invasive species. His research goal is to understand the long-term consequences of interactions between invasive species and other global change drivers such as climate change, emerging pathogens and urbanization. The Flory Lab explores basic and applied questions in natural and managed ecosystems such as the highlands of Galápagos, coffee agroecosystems in Costa Rica, eastern deciduous forests in the United States, and pine forests and managed systems in Florida.
Jose Fortes, Ph.D.
Professor and AT&T Eminent Scholar of Electrical and Computer Engineering
José A.B. Fortes founded and is director of the Advanced Computing and Information Systems Laboratory. Fortes’ research spans several key areas, including distributed computing, autonomic computing, computer architecture, parallel processing and fault-tolerant computing. Fortes is a leading expert in advanced
computing and information systems. He is known for developing robust and efficient computing systems that support large-scale scientific research and digital government applications. Fortes has been instrumental in creating cloud and grid computing software used in various e-Science initiatives. His work on cyberinfrastructure includes significant projects like iDigBio and CENTRA, which aim to enhance data integration and accessibility for biological research.
Nicolas Gauthier, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator of Artificial Intelligence for Cultural and Biological Diversity
Nicolas Gauthier’s work bridges ecology, geography and anthropology, using computational methods to study how human societies and environments have influenced each other over thousands of years. He develops new approaches for analyzing archaeological and environmental data to understand patterns of human adaptation and resilience. After receiving his Ph.D. in anthropology from Arizona State University in 2019, he held postdoctoral positions at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego before joining the Florida Museum.
Gauthier specializes in leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the study of cultural and biological diversity. His research focuses on using machine learning and computational modeling to analyze vast amounts of archaeological and ecological data, aiming to uncover patterns and insights that span different time periods and geographical regions. Gauthier’s work involves translating complex datasets into accessible information that can be used across multiple scientific disciplines. He studies how ancient civilizations interacted with their environments and each other, drawing parallels to modern issues such as sustainability and climate change. By examining historical data, he seeks to inform contemporary efforts in urban sustainability and environmental stewardship. His interdisciplinary approach combines elements of human ecology, paleoclimate studies, and land use analysis, contributing to a deeper understanding of how past human activities can guide present and future conservation strategies.
Sheeja George, Ph.D.PMP
Research Coordinator
Office of the Dean for Research, Institute of Food & Agricultural Science
Sheeja George works in research strategy for the IFAS Office of Research. She has over 17 years of experience in sustainable agroecosystems, soil health, bioenergy, and climate change adaptation in the context of agricultural systems. Her research focus has been on developing a systems thinking in building resilience in agriculture and natural resources. Over the last decade, still using the same approach, she has transitioned to program development, program management, and stakeholder engagement. She is enthusiastic about bringing together subject matter experts in academia, public and private sectors, and stakeholder communities for designing projects and pursuing funding opportunities related to sustainable food and agricultural systems, and ecosystem service and natural capital valuation and quantification. She has strategic and tactical experience in building and fostering cross-sector and interdisciplinary collaborations for federal, state, and private sector funded programs. She is interested in understanding, and then amplifying, synergies among various programs within IFAS and UF as a whole.
Matt Gitzendanner specializes in plant evolutionary genetics and genomics. His work encompasses a broad range of topics, including population and conservation genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. Gitzendanner’s research aims to advance the application of next-generation sequencing technologies to address evolutionary genetics questions and improve bioinformatics tools for data analysis. He has contributed significantly to the understanding of genetic diversity in rare plant species and the genetic consequences of rarity. His studies often involve the use of microsatellites and genomic sequencing to design primers for genetic markers. In addition to his research, Gitzendanner serves as a lab manager for the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolutionary Genetics and provides training and support through UF Research Computing. He is also involved in forensic botany, applying DNA analyses of plant samples for forensic investigations.
Rob Guralnick’s work focuses on answering pressing questions about life on earth from an interdisciplinary perspective. As the Florida Museum of Natural History’s curator of biodiversity informatics, Guralnick synthesizes data from vast museum collections to help scientists understand changes in biodiversity over space and time. Since arriving at the museum in 2015, much of Guralnick’s work has focused on using museum collections to understand how climate and landscape changes impact biodiversity – not only recently, but throughout Earth’s history. His collaborations with museum scientists have also resulted in a database of comprehensive records for nearly thousands of butterfly species and a platform for linking animal records across biological and archaeological databases.
José Huguet-Tapia studies plant diseases caused by bacteria. His research focuses on understanding how these bacteria make plants sick, using tools from genetics and molecular biology. Huguet-Tapia develops methods to analyze the DNA of plant pathogens, especially bacteria like Xanthomonas. He looks at how these bacteria evolve and interact with plants, aiming to find ways to prevent and treat plant diseases. In addition to his research, he also teaches and advises others in bioinformatics, sharing his knowledge and tools to help the scientific community.
Diego Jarquin is a statistician who combines statistical methodology, AI, computer algorithm development, data science, and collaborative work with plant and animal scientists to advance the state of the art of predictive models for breeding implementations. Jarquin’s program is focused on the development of interpretable AI methods and related disciplines (biostatistics, quantitative genetics, and modeling) that can be applied to large data sets to reveal solutions to complex plant breeding and plant systems biology questions. He is especially focused on optimizing methods for plant breeding, leveraging information from multiple facets of plant biology — from physiology, agronomy, and biochemistry to quantitative genetics and multi-omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and high-throughput phenotyping) — to provide novel solutions for unraveling the biological basis of complex traits for plant breeding programs.
Jon Kim, DVM, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
Jon Kim focuses on developing novel diagnostic and clinical applications in comparative oncology and translational medicine by utilizing AI and machine learning. He is working to define fundamental mechanisms of cancers, particularly soft-tissue sarcomas and bone malignancies such as angiosarcoma and osteosarcoma. These tumors occur naturally in companion dogs, and his team is dedicated to revolutionizing comparative oncology research to improve human and animal health.
Carla Mavian, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Pathology
College of Medicine and Emerging Pathogens Institute
Carla Mavian studies infectious diseases, focusing on how they evolve and spread. She looks at both large-scale patterns, like how diseases move through populations, and small-scale details, such as how viruses change within a single host. Mavian studies the connections between humans, animals, and the environment to understand how diseases emerge and spread, especially in areas affected by climate change and land use changes. Her current projects include researching the spread of bacteria like vibrios, modeling how climate affects disease outbreaks, and studying viruses in wildlife in biodiversity hotspots.
Leonid Moroz, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Genetics, Biology and Chemistry
Leonid L. Moroz takes advantage of marine biodiversity to understand how neurons operate, learn, and remember. Having discovered that neurons and centralized brains independently evolved from ancestral cell lineages, he is using massive single-cell ‘omics’, together with physiology and advanced imaging, to reconstruct how the descendants of these cell lineages “come together” to form nervous systems of ctenophores or bilaterian brains, including octopuses and humans. He has developed unique floating labs to sequence marine organisms while at sea.
Todd Palmer’s research focuses on understanding how anthropogenic change and biodiversity loss affect the structure and functioning of ecological communities. Although his main geographical focus is East Africa and
the Bahamas, these questions are relevant to the conservation and restoration of ecosystems from Florida to Fiji, and everywhere in between. Among the scientific questions he asks are: How do beneficial interactions among different species structure natural communities? What will happen to ecological communities and their functions (e.g., carbon storage, productivity) when we lose different animal species, or when new species invade? What are the best practices for restoring ecosystems that have been degraded? Palmer’s work, which has been published in the highest-impact journals in science, combines long-term, large-scale experiments, global experimental networks and modeling. He employs a suite of modern methods, including DNA metabarcoding, isotope tracing, drone surveys, remote sensing and novel physiological approaches.
Arthur Porto’s research integrates artificial intelligence and evolutionary biology, focusing on the development of AI-assisted tools for processing biodiversity data. His work has advanced understanding of morphological evolution through innovative AI-driven methods and open-source software tools that facilitate high-throughput phenomics.
Porto, the first curator of artificial intelligence for natural history and biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History, focuses on identifying hidden patterns in extensive digital repositories of natural history data, aiming to understand the tempo and mode of evolution. His work involves developing and applying AI techniques to analyze complex data sets, such as 3D reconstructions of mammal skulls, to infer evolutionary relationships and processes. He integrates mathematical models and computational methods to study how organisms evolve and the constraints they face. His innovative approach bridges biology and computer science, enhancing the museum’s ability to explore and interpret biodiversity.
Sadie Ryan studies how diseases such as malaria and dengue spread and how environmental changes affect their transmission. She uses maps and data to understand where and how these diseases are likely to occur, considering factors like climate, land use and human movement. Ryan’s research helps predict disease outbreaks and supports efforts to prevent them. She also examines how climate change impacts the spread of diseases, aiming to improve public health responses. As the leader of the Quantitative Disease Ecology and Conservation Lab, she develops new methods for studying and managing disease risks. Additionally, she co-directs the Florida Climate Institute at UF, working on projects that address health challenges related to climate change.
Vaughn M. Shirey’s work at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera + Biodiversity is focused on compiling large and disparate data sets and sieving them through computer models to pick out patterns. In 2022, he co-authored the largest data set of moth and butterfly traits ever assembled, which directly resulted in the discovery that butterflies originated in North America 100 million years ago. He worked as a data manager for the North American Butterfly Monitoring Network from 2020 through 2023 and has developed a knack for extracting critical conservation information from convoluted policy documents using natural language processing.
Shirey specializes in the study of butterflies and moths. His research focuses on understanding how these insects are affected by modern environmental challenges such as climate change, habitat destruction and pesticide use. Shirey uses museum specimens to investigate how butterflies and moths adapt to extreme environments, particularly those undergoing rapid climate shifts. His work involves digitizing and expanding the museum’s collections to provide valuable data for studying these adaptations. He is particularly interested in how climate change impacts cold-adapted butterflies, exploring the effects of warming temperatures on their survival and distribution.
Kaleb E. Smith is a senior data scientist and site lead for NVIDIA’s AI Technology Center at UF, which facilitates research collaborations leveraging NVIDIA’s advanced AI technologies. Smith’s expertise spans deep learning, generative models and machine learning. His research includes work on neural time-series generation, GANs, and large language models such as”GatorTron” for health care applications. The NVIDIA AI Technology Center is a joint research center of UF and NVIDIA for advancing AI education and research and fostering partnerships between higher education and industry. This close collaboration enables UF researchers to adopt the latest technologies developed at NVIDIA and accelerate their projects to new levels.
Cătălin Voiniciuc studies plant carbohydrates to understand how they help plants grow and stay strong. His research focuses on complex sugars in plant cell walls, which are important for plant structure and function. Voiniciuc uses advanced tools to explore and modify these sugars, aiming to develop plants that are more resilient and useful for agriculture and industry. By studying the genetic makeup of these carbohydrates, his work helps improve crop resilience, enhance biofuel production and create sustainable materials. His approach combines plant biology, genetics, and bioengineering, contributing to both basic plant science and practical applications. Within the next decade, Voiniciuc anticipates carbohydrate-related genes could be engineered or edited to improve the nutritional profiles of valuable crops and the stress or mechanical resistance of fruits and vegetables. New polysaccharide-based avenues are also needed to address the bioenergy aims of the U.S. for carbon sequestration or to generate more sustainable chemical feedstocks, agronomic traits (e.g. yield and stress tolerance), quality traits (e.g. berry texture), as well as post-harvest handling in a changing climate.
Daisy Zhe Wang, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer and Information Science Engineering
Daisy Zhe Wang, director of the Data Science Research Lab at UF, is interested in building systems that combine information from various sources, such as text and images, to create detailed and reliable knowledge networks. Her goal is to make data analysis more efficient and insightful. She currently pursues research topics such as probabilistic databases, probabilistic knowledge bases, large-scale inference engines, query-driven interactive machine learning and crowd-assisted machine learning. Wang’s team is building systems and designing algorithms to support large-scale and advanced data analysis using statistics and machine learning.
Yu Wang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Yu Wang is leader of the Autonomous and Connected Vehicles program in the UF Transportation Institute. The Smart Autonomy Lab Wang leads focuses on robotics and autonomous systems, including self-driving cars and industrial robots that work alongside humans. The primary challenge is enabling these systems to make effective decisions independently, especially in unpredictable environments. The lab aims to enhance these systems by integrating traditional control methods with the latest advancements in machine learning and logical reasoning, striving to create smarter and more reliable autonomous systems.
Ethan White’s research focuses on understanding large amounts of ecological data. His work includes predicting how natural systems, like plants and animals, will change over time, similar to weather forecasting. He also uses data from satellites and airplanes to gather information about the environment, which helps in understanding large-scale ecological patterns. White’s team employs advanced computer and statistical methods to analyze vast amounts of environmental data. They also develop open-source software and share large datasets to make ecological research more efficient and inclusive.
Chang Zhao studies how nature benefits people, focusing on things like food production, climate regulation and pollination. Her research uses advanced tools such as satellite images and artificial intelligence to map and understand these benefits across different landscapes, including cities and farms. Zhao aims to help us better understand how these natural services impact health and well-being. Zhao’s interdisciplinary research integrates Geographic Information Science (GIS), remote sensing, geovisualization and AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning. Her research has significant implications for agriculture, public health, and social sciences, making Zhao a key contributor to ecosystem services and geo-AI.
Technical Organizers
Alina Zare, Ph.D.
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Director, Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Research Institute
Alina Zare is director of the UF Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Research Institute and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Zare’s research has focused primarily on developing algorithms to autonomously understand and process non-visual imagery. Her research work has included automated plant root phenotyping using visual and X-ray imagery, 3D reconstruction and analysis of X-ray micro-CT imagery, sub-pixel hyperspectral image analysis, target detection and underwater scene understanding using synthetic aperture sonar, LIDAR data analysis, Ground Penetrating Radar analysis, and buried landmine and explosive hazard detection.
Pamela Soltis, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor and Curator, Florida Museum of Natural History
Pamela Soltis is a Distinguished Professor and Curator in the Florida Museum of Natural History Director of the UF Biodiversity Institute. Her research focuses on patterns and processes of plant evolution, spanning genome to landscape scales, with applications for biodiversity assessment and conservation. She also serves as Director of Research for iDigBio, the NSF-sponsored National Coordinating Center for Biodiversity Collections. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
David Blackburn, Ph.D.
Curator, Florida Museum of Natural History
Associate Director of Research and Collections, Florida Museum of Natural History
David Blackburn is curator of herpetology and associate director of research and collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He is also chair of the museum’s Department of Natural History. His work bridges local and global research, engaging communities in understanding biodiversity and ecosystem changes. Blackburn is an evolutionary biologist specializing in the diversity and natural history of amphibians. His research focuses on the diversity, evolution and conservation of amphibians, especially frogs. His research group conducts studies in natural history museums, at tropical field sites, and in the laboratory using molecular genetic methods and high-resolution CT-scanning.
