Faculty Member, Biological Sciences
Chair
About
I am a conservation biologist/population ecologist working primarily with amphibians and reptiles, especially snakes and turtles. I did my doctoral work with Henry Fitch at the University of Kansas (go Jayhawks!), did my post-doc work with Whit Gibbons at SREL, and spent 13 years as a faculty member at Southeastern Louisiana University. I am currently Department Chair and Professor here at Towson.
Current projects include work on map turtles, box turtles, and snapping turtles in Maryland, gopher tortoises and snake populations in Florida, and continued work on life-history evolution of snakes with Neil Ford at UT-Tyler.
I currently have three grad students in my lab. Pat Cain is working with Maryland DNR to determine impacts of commercial harvesting of snapping turtles in Chesapeake Bay. Scott Farnsworth is looking at the differences in survival and movements of box turtles relocated short and long distances from a major road construction project. Teal Richards will be working on the ecology and conservation of northern map turtles, a state endangered species in Maryland.
There are great opportunities for grad students interested in herp conservation and ecology at Towson, especially as we have three faculty working with herps (me, Don Forester, and Joel Snodgrass). Students interested in working with my lab should contact me as far in advance as possible and should look at Don and Joel's labs as well.
Contact Information
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Towson University
8000 York Rd
Towson, MD 21252
410-704-3123
