S. Blair Hedges

Professor of Biology

Address

Department of Biology

The Pennsylvania State University

208 Mueller Laboratory

University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-5301

Tel. 814-865-9991

E-mail: sbh1-at-psu-dot-edu

w/Renaissance map of Caribbean

(AP Photo/Pat Little)

Other positions and affiliations

Member, NASA Astrobiology Institute (1998-present) (http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/).

Research Associate, National Museum of National History, Washington, DC (1998-present).

Director, Astrobiology Summer Program, Pennsylvania State University (2002-present)

Member, NASA Astrobiology Roadmap Committee (2001-2003).

Co-Chair, Evolutionary Genomics Focus Group, NASA Astrobiology Institute (2000-present) (http://www.evogenomics.org/).

Chairman, Genomes and Evolution 2004, Annual meeting of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and American Genetic Association (http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/genomes/)

Coordinator for the Caribbean, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Amphibians (http://www.iucnredlist.org/amphibians/), (2001-present).

Co-Director, TimeTree Project and Consortium (www.timetree.org)

Organizer, Discovering the Timetree of Life symposium, Phoenix (2006)

Selected awards, named lectures, and recognition

Science News of the Year, 2008, Life, Science News Magazine

Top Ten Organisms of 2008, Wired Magazine

Who's Who in the World (2008)

Who's Who in the America (2008) 

Nature "Champagne Writing" Award (best News & Views, 2003)

Philips Distinguished Lecture, Haverford College, 2003

Karling Lecture, Mycological Society of America, 2002

Darwin Lecture, Natural History Museum, London, 2001

Hot Paper in Biology, Institute for Scientific Information (for Nature 392:917-920)

Faculty Associates Teaching Award, Pennsylvania State University, 1997

Research interests

Research in the Hedges Lab involves evolutionary biology, often exploring connections with Earth history in diverse groups of organisms and time periods. Molecular sequence data are frequently used to build an evolutionary framework for additional, synthetic analyses that may involve genes and structures. The overall goal is to learn more about the natural world, and especially the major patterns and underlying mechanisms that have shaped the evolutionary history of life in the broadest sense.

   Biological disciplines represented include astrobiology, biodiversity, bioinformatics, conservation, ecology, genomics, molecular evolution, natural history, paleontology, phylogenetics, and systematics. Other disciplines represented are astronomy, climatology, and geology.

Other academic interests

The biodiversity of the West Indies and its conservation, especially the amphibians and reptiles (see www.caribherp.org).

The discovery of America as recorded in maps and artwork (especially woodblock and copperplate prints) of the Renaissance, and development of methods for refining historical timelines (see www.caribmap.org and www.printclock.org).   

Publications

Approximately 210 articles and two books or monographs

Go HERE for complete list