I am an experimental community ecologist interested in how ecological interactions mediate the effects of human impacts on the environment. I hold a BS (honors) from Cornell University, received my PhD from the University of Washington (Zoology) and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in the Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. I joined the University of Chicago Faculty in 1993 and currently serve as Chair of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology. My research combines field observations, field experiments and quantitative analyses/theory, and has recently focused on developing and using comprehensive data series on ecological dynamics to understand how impacts on natural ecosystems are structured and play out. My research has included studies on the causes and consequences of extinctions and invasive species, on the impacts of dams and flooding on rivers, and on the ecosystem effects of changing energy inputs and land use. Our long-term studies have provided some of the first field evidence of ongoing ocean acidification and introduced a novel method to connect aspects of global change to ecosystem response. Taken together, my research reveals the role of indirect effects (akin to “unintended consequences” in economics) in mediating the effects of environmental change, and emphasizes the necessity of a holistic approach to understanding and anticipating how human activity affects the environment and feeds back to human well-being.
