S.Blair Hedges.
Professor of Biology

 

Other positions and affiliations

• Member, NASA Astrobiology Institute (1998–present) (http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/)
• Co-Chair, Evolutionary Genomics Focus Group. NASA Astrobiology Institute (2000–)
• Research Associate, National Museum of National History, Washington, DC (1998–)
• Chairman, Genomes and Evolution 2004, Annual meeting of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and American Genetic Association
• Redlist Authority, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (2009–)
• Coordinator for the Caribbean, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Red List of Threatened Species of amphibians and Global Amphibian Assessment (2001–)
• Director, Astrobiology Summer Program, Pennsylvania State University (2002–)
• Member, IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2005–)
• Senior Editor, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2012–)
• Associate Editor, BMC Evolutionary Biology (2008–2011)
• Co-Director, TimeTree Project and Consortium: www.timetree.org (2005–)
• Member, Editorial Board of BMC Proceedings (2007–)
• Member, Editorial Board of Novitates Caribaea (2007–)

Selected awards, fellowships, and named lectures

• Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2009
• Science News of the Year, Life, Science News Magazine, 2008
• Who’s Who in the World, 2008; Who’s Who in America (Marquis), 2008–
• Faculty Scholar Medal, Pennsylvania State University, 2011
• Garrett Lectureship in the History of Cartography, Univiversity of Texas, 2012
• Philips Lectureship, Haverford College, 2003
• Karling Lectureship, Mycological Society of America, 2002
• Darwin Lecture (Natural History Museum, London), 2001
• Faculty Associates Teaching Award, Pennsylvania State University, 1997

Recognition of published works

• H-index = 61; total citations = 14,003; i10-index = 131 (Google Scholar)
• Article in top 1% of all-time most-cited articles in Nature (ISI)
• All-time most-cited research* articles in BMC Evolutionary Biology, Comptes Rendus Biologies, and Zootaxa.
• 11 articles in the New York Times on lab research
• Champagne Writing Award for best 'News and Views' in Nature (2003)

Taxonomic contributions

• Author of 107 species names of amphibians, reptiles, and butterflies
• Author of 32 genus-group names of amphibians and reptiles
• Author of 22 family-group names of amphibians and reptiles
• Author of 30 higher taxa of prokaryotes and animals

Field experience

Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba*, Dominica, Dominican Republic*, Grenadines, Guadeloupe*, Haiti*, Jamaica*, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Croix, Saint John, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Thomas, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the United States.
*Multiple expeditions

Research interests

Research in the Hedges Lab involves evolutionary biology, often exploring connections with Earth history in diverse groups of organisms and time periods. Molecular sequence data are frequently used to build an evolutionary framework for synthetic analyses that may involve genes and structures. The overall goal is to learn more about the natural world, and especially the major patterns and underlying mechanisms that have shaped the evolutionary history of life in the broadest sense. These include speciation, adaptive radiation, lineage diversification, historical biogeography, and mass extinction. Of particular interest are global changes in the planetary environment such as continental breakup, climate change, and extraterrestrial impacts, and their effect on the evolution of life.

Biological disciplines represented include astrobiology, biodiversity, bioinformatics, conservation, ecology, genomics, molecular evolution, natural history, paleontology, phylogenetics, and systematics. Other disciplines represented are astronomy, climatology, and geology.

Other academic interests

The interface of science and art is a long-term interest, and especially development of methods for dating printed works such as woodblock and copperplate prints, and books, throughout human history: Articles 176, 195, and 200. Also of interest are biological insights that can be obtained from art (Article 240) and refining historical timelines (see www.caribmap.org, www.printclock.org).

Publications

Approximately 240 articles and 5 books or monographs.
Go HERE for complete list.

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