David Skelly designated the Oastler Professor of Ecology

David Skelly, newly named as the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology, focuses his research on understanding the ecological mechanisms of animal distributions and in developing the means to apply that understanding to conservation and management.

David Skelly, newly named as the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology, focuses his research on understanding the ecological mechanisms of animal distributions and in developing the means to apply that understanding to conservation and management.

David Skelly

Skelly’s studies of amphibians have been directed at determining the causes of patterns such as the extinction and establishment of populations. He has employed field and laboratory experiments in conjunction with long-term observations of populations and their environment.in order to discover the links among landscape-level distributions, performance across environmental gradients, and the attributes of individual species. His current projects include an exploration of forest dynamics as a driver of amphibian population extinctions and rapid evolution and an investigation of endocrine disruption in suburban environments

A graduate of Middlebury College, Skelly earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He was a research fellow at the University of Wollongong (Australia) and the University of Washington before joining the Yale faculty in 1996. Prior to his new post, his primary appointment was as professor of ecology. He also is curator of the Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History and a member of the consulting faculty for the Yale National University of Singapore College. He was named associate dean for research at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES) in 2009 and served in that role until becoming Director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in July of 2014.

Skelly is co-editor of “The Art of Ecology: Writings of G. Evelyn Hutchinson.” He has contributed dozens of research articles to professional journals and served as a peer reviewer for such organizations as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. National Park Service, among others.

The Yale professor’s honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the Award for Teaching Excellence from F&ES, which he received four times. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Institutes of Health, among other organizations.

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