Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Psychology at The University of New Mexico's Biology Department

The Biology Department has a number of faculty with interests in the evolution and ecology of behavior in animals and humans. Prospective graduate students and undergraduates with interests in behavior should contact these professors concerning applications for admission and special opportunities for research experience.

• DR. JAMES H. BROWN, Regents' Professor. PhD (Zoology), University of Michigan, 1967. Community ecology and biogeography, with special projects on granivory in desert ecosystems; biogeography of insular habitats; and structure of dynamics of geographic-scale assemblages of many species. email: jhbrown@mail.unm.edu

• DR. ERIC L. CHARNOV, Distinguished Professor and MacArthur Fellow. PhD (Quantitative Ecology), University of Washington, 1973. Scaling and invariance rules in evolutionary ecology, particularly life histories; sex allocation; sperm competition; human life histories.

• DR. ASTRID KODRIC-BROWN, Professor. PhD (Zoology), University of Southern California, 1975. Ecological behavior; adaptive significance of social behavior; tests of sexual selection models; selection of epigamic characteristics in fishes; energetic cost of territorial defense in optimal and marginal habitats; coevolution of pollinators and flowers. email: kodric@mail.unm.edu

  

• DR. DAVID LIGON, Professor and Curator of Birds, The Museum of Southwestern Biology. PhD (Zoology), University of Michigan, 1967. Avian biology, particularly social behavior. email: jdligon@mail.unm.edu

• DR. GARY MILLER, Research Assistant Professor. Behavioral ecology; seabirds and marine mammals; population genetics; conservation biology. email: gdmiller@mail.unm.edu
• DR. HOWARD L. SNELL, Associate Professor and Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, the Museum of Southwest Biology. PhD (Biology), Colorado State University, 1984. Evolutionary ecology, conservation biology, and herpetology. email: snell@mail.unm.edu

• DR. PETER B. STACEY, Research Professor PhD University of Colorado, 1978. Conservation biology, restoration ecology, behavioral ecology and ornithology. Current projects include metapopulation dynamics and genetic population structure of the Mexican Spotted Owl and the Flammulated Owl, metapopulation structure of White-tailed Ptarmigan, landscape ecology and the restoration of riparian ecosystems and dispersal strategies and genetic population structure of Australian Treecreepers. email: pstacey@mail.unm.edu
• DR. FRITZ TAYLOR, Associate Professor. PhD (Biology), University of Chicago, 1975. Applying evolutionary principals to understand human behavior, particularly the origins of consciousness, tool making, and language, and the causes and control of organized violence. email: taylor@mail.unm.edu

• DR. RANDY THORNHILL, Regents' Professor. PhD (Zoology), University of Michigan, 1974. Evolution and ecology of social interactions, especially sexual interactions and sexual selection in humans and animals. email: rthorn@mail.unm.edu

• DR. PAUL J. WATSON, Research Assistant Professor. PhD (Biology), Section of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University, 1988. Behavioral ecology and sexual selection; courtship energetics; tradeoffs between sexual competitiveness and rates of senescence; impacts of mate choice on the metabolic, developmental and immunological competence of offspring, as well as rates of aging. Human evolutionary psychology and implications for psychotherapeutic methods. The evolution of human unipolar depression and other forms of psychological pain. Summer field courses in Behavioral Ecology and Plant-Animal Interactions in northwestern Montana. email: pwatson@mail.unm.edu

This page last updated 30 January 2003.