User:Thomas B Smith/Sandbox

Dr. Thomas B. Smith is an evolutionary biologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also Acting Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Director of the Center for Tropical Research and the Center for Climate Change Solutions.

Dr. Smith has more than 20 years of experience working in the rainforests of Africa, Australia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Hawaii, and has published more than 125 articles. A central focus of his research is investigating how speciation occurs in tropical rainforests. Combining molecular genetics and field biology, he identified a new theory of how speciation occurs in rainforests. In a series of studies published in the journals Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy, he has shown that for a wide range of taxa in rainforests worldwide, the processes of diversification and speciation take place not only within “biodiversity hotspots” but also along environmental gradients or ecotones representing the transition from one habitat to another. The implications of this discovery are far-reaching. With climate change threatening large-scale shifts in species distributions and the habitats on which they depend, the hotspots of today may not be the hotspots of tomorrow. The results of Dr. Smith’s research point to new and more effective ways of prioritizing regions for conservation.

As founder and Director of the Center for Tropical Research (CTR), a center of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, Dr. Smith directs the research of a large number of graduate students and postdoctoral scientists on projects based in tropical countries around the world. In collaboration with a network of prominent scientists from a diversity of disciplines and backgrounds, CTR researchers are conducting research in many critical areas, including: the processes important in generating diversity in rainforests, the relationship between ecology and disease, connectivity and conservation of migratory birds, and rainforest restoration in human-dominated landscapes. CTR projects employ novel applications and use the latest technologies, ranging from satellite imagery to molecular genetics. The unifying goal of the scientists at CTR is to understand the biotic processes that underlie and maintain the diversity of life worldwide, especially in the tropics, and to use this knowledge to address global environmental challenges.

Current Positions

 * Acting Director, Institute of the Environment, UCLA. July 2007-present.
 * Director, Center for Tropical Research, UCLA Institute of the Environment. January 2002-present.
 * Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Institute of the Environment, UCLA. January 2002-present.
 * Adjunct Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, San Francisco State University. May 2004-present.
 * Senior Fellow, Zoological Society of London. 1997-present.
 * Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, Stinson Beach, CA. 2002-present.
 * Member, Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, 2007-present.

Academic Degrees

 * Ph.D., Zoology, University of California at Berkeley, 1988
 * M.S., Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981
 * B.S., Natural Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978

Selected Honors and Awards

 * 2004, Elected Fellow, American Ornithologists' Union.
 * 2002, Point Reyes Bird Observatory Board of Directors Special Service Award.
 * 1997, Founding Member of Gamma Psi, Phi Beta Delta.
 * 1994, Elected Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.
 * 1989, Senior Fulbright Research Scholar.

Publications
127 papers and book chapters published or in press on evolutionary ecology, mechanisms of speciation, conservation of vertebrates, maintenance of rainforest biodiversity, microevolutionary divergence and population genetic structure of migrant birds, and ecology of disease.

Major Grants
Received more than $16 million in research funding from agencies and foundations, including the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The National Geographic Society, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Institutes of Health, and the Turner Foundation.