EEB/ABS Welcomes New Program Coordinator

Nick Jacobsen is a conservation social scientist who focuses his teaching and research on understanding human-environment interactions.

He completed his B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Rice University, and he received his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University from the Applied Biodiversity Science program. His dissertation research investigated human-lion conflict in the Okavango Delta Region of Botswana, and was more specifically on how national and international policies shaped local people’s interactions with and attitudes toward large predators.

Before graduate school Nick participated in field-based research projects in California, Peru, South Africa, and Ethiopia, all focusing on mammalian carnivore ecology and conservation. In his free time, Nick enjoys camping and hiking, travel, and basketball (mostly watching these days).

Welcome to EEB’s newest Associate Faculty member!

Brian W. Davis is a Research Assistant Professor of Genomics in the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences in the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine, and the founder of the Exotic Genome Repository.

Brian received his Ph.D. from  Texas A&M University where he focused on the genomics of speciation using hybrid felines as a model for reproductive isolation. Shortly after, he founded a multi-institutional biobank for the preservation of tissues from animals under veterinary surveillance in the US. He then joined the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Comparative Genomics and Cancer Genetics branches as a postdoc where he focused on natural/artificial selection and the burden of deleterious variation in multiple post-domestication and wild animal species. Focused heavily on big-data genomics and genome evolution, his research at Texas A&M focuses on integrating models of heritable disease across diverse species.

Daniel Spalink is EEB’s newest Core Faculty member and an Assistant Professor of Plant Systematics in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University and Director of the S.M. Tracy Herbarium (TAES).

Daniel received his Ph.D. from the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied the ecological and biogeographical diversification of the sedge family, Cyperaceae. He then conducted a postdoc at UW-Madison, where he studied the biogeography and diversification of the orchid family (Orchidaceae) and the spatial structure of phylogenetic diversity in the Wisconsin flora. Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M University, Daniel conducted a second postdoc at the University of Utah, where he studied the genomic structure of phylogenetic discordance in the pepper tribe, Capsiceae.

Welcome Daniel!