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–).
Co-Chair, Evolutionary Genomics Focus Group. NASA Astrobiology Institute (2000–)
Chairman, Genomes and Evolution 2004, Annual meeting of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and American Genetic Association.
Coordinator for the Caribbean, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species of amphibians and Global Amphibian Assessment (2001-)
Director, Astrobiology Summer Program, Pennsylvania State University (2002–).
Member, IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group,2005–)
Associate Editor, BMC Evolutionary Biology (2008–)
Co-Director, TimeTree Project and Consortium: www.timetree.org (2005–)
Member, Editorial Board of BMC Proceedings (2007–)
Member, Editorial Board of Novitates Caribaea (2007–)

Selected awards and named lectures

2009 Top Ten New Species, International Institute for Species Exploration
Science News of the Year, 2008, Life, Science News Magazine
Top Ten New Organisms of 2008, Wired Magazine
Who’s Who in the World, 2008; Who’s Who in America, 2008 (Marquis)
Philips Distinguished Lectureship, Haverford College, 2003
Karling Lectureship, Mycological Society of America, 2002
Darwin Lecture (Natural History Museum, London), 2001
Faculty Associates Teaching Award, Pennsylvania State University, 1997

Recognition of published works

H-index = 42; total citations = 6,479 (ISI, 2009)
Article in top 1% of all-time most-cited articles in Nature (ISI)
All-time most-cited research article in BMC Evolutionary Biology (of 2,156 articles; ISI)
All-time most-cited research article in Comptes Rendus Biologies (of 1,005 articles; ISI)
Third all-time most-cited article in Zootaxa (of 5,267 articles; ISI)
Nature Champagne Writing Award, for best News and Views (2003)
Editor’s Choice, Biology Letters (2008)
Editor’s Choice, Science (2002)
Editor’s Choice and Top 100 Cited Papers, BMC Journals, 2001–2002
Hot Paper in Biology, Institute for Scientific Information, 2000

Taxonomic contributions

Author of 79 species names of amphibians, reptiles, and butterflies
Author of 18 genus-group names of amphibians and reptiles
Author of 17 family-group names of amphibians and reptiles
Author of 30 higher taxa of prokaryotes and animals

Field experience

Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba*, Dominica, Dominican Republic*, Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Haiti*, Jamaica*, Montserrat, Nevis, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Croix, Saint John, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Thomas, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the United States.
*Expeditions

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. These include speciation, adaptive radiation, lineage diversification, historical biogeography, and mass extinction. Of particular interest are global changes in the planetary environment such as continental breakup, climate change, and extraterrestrial impacts, and their effect on the evolution of life.

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 225 articles and two books or monographs
Go HERE for complete list