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Draft:David Skelly

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David Skelly

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David K. Skelly is an American ecologist, professor, curator and university administrator currently serving as the Director of the Yale Peabody Museum and the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment.


Early life and education

Skelly grew up in Wilton, Connecticut.[1]   He attended Middlebury College graduating cum laude in 1987 and earning Honors in Biology.[2]  He received his Ph.D. in Biology[3] from the University of Michigan in 1992 where he studied with Prof. Earl Werner.  He completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia and at the University of Washington in Seattle.


Career

In 1996, Skelly was appointed Assistant Professor of Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment.  He secured tenure and was promoted to full professor in 2003.[2]  In 2009, he was appointed Associate Dean in the School of the Environment, a post he held until 2014.  That year he became Director of the Yale Peabody Museum.[1] His research has focused on ecology and conservation including the role of contaminants in the environment.[4] He has shown that wildlife populations are evolving as climate is changing, demonstrating that evolution can be more rapid and occur over finer scales than has typically been assumed.[5][6] He collaborated with landscape designer Diana Balmori on the design of a wildlife crossing[7] and researched the role of changing climate and landscapes on the fate of wildlife populations.[5][8]


Skelly’s tenure as Director of the Peabody has focused on the renovation and expansion of the Museum.  After securing a $160 million gift in 2018 from Yale alumnus and former trustee Edward P. Bass[8], Skelly led the Museum through a planning process for a capital project designed by Centerbrook Architects and managed by Turner Construction. [9] The museum closed in March, 2020 and re-opened in March, 2024 with free admission, 50% more gallery space and undergraduate classrooms embedded on each floor of the Museum.[10][11][12]. Over the first 3 months it was open, it welcomed more visitors than it had during an entire year before it closed.

Awards and Honors

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In recognition of his research on the biology and conservation of amphibians, Skelly received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and was made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011.[13] In 2018, he received the Seton Elm Ivy Award from Yale University and the City of New Haven for his efforts to improve the museum as a resource for the public.[14]

Selected Publications

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Lambert, M. R., G. S. J. Giller, L. B. Barber, K. C. Fitzgerald, and D. K. Skelly. 2015. Suburbanization, estrogen contamination, and sex ratio in wild amphibian populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112:11881–11886.[1]

Richardson, J.L., M.C. Urban, D. Bolnick, and D.K. Skelly. 2014. Microgeographic adaptation and the spatial scale of evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 29:165-176.[2]

Skelly, D. K. 2004. Microgeographic countergradient variation in the wood frog, Rana sylvatica. Evolution 58: 160-165.[3]

Skelly, D. K., L. K. Freidenburg, and S. R. Bolden. 2014. Experimental canopy removal enhances diversity of vernal pond amphibians. Ecological Applications 24:340-345. [4]

Skelly, D. K., D. M. Post, and M. D. Smith (editors). 2010. The art of ecology: writings of G. Evelyn Hutchinson. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.[5]

Zarnetske, P. L., D. K. Skelly, M. C. Urban. 2012. Biotic multipliers of climate change. Science 336:1516-1518.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b "A Peabody kid becomes the museums director". yalealumnimagazine.org. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  2. ^ a b "David Skelly | Yale School of the Environment". environment.yale.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  3. ^ "History | U-M LSA Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)". lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
  4. ^ writer, Douglas Main Senior (2015-09-07). "Male Frogs May Be Turning Female Thanks to Estrogen in Suburban Waste". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  5. ^ a b Arietta, A. Z. Andis; Skelly, David K. (November 2021). "Rapid microgeographic evolution in response to climate change". Evolution. 75 (11): 2930–2943. doi:10.1111/evo.14350. ISSN 0014-3820.
  6. ^ Richardson, Jonathan L.; Urban, Mark C.; Bolnick, Daniel I.; Skelly, David K. (March 2014). "Microgeographic adaptation and the spatial scale of evolution". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 29 (3): 165–176. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2014.01.002. ISSN 1872-8383. PMID 24560373.
  7. ^ Balmori, Diana; Skelly, David K. (2012). "Crossing to Sustainability: A Role for Design in Overcoming Road Effects". Ecological Restoration. 30 (4): 363–352. ISSN 1543-4079.
  8. ^ a b vea, tanner (2010-03-25). "Frogs: The Thin Green Line ~ About | Nature | PBS". Nature. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  9. ^ Franklin, Sydney (2018-08-30). "Yale is set to renovate the landmark Peabody Museum of Natural History". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  10. ^ "Connecticut museum reopens with first brontosaurus found in US". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  11. ^ Tugend, Alina (2024-04-27). "Upgraded Museums Add New Value to College Campuses". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  12. ^ Thomas, Amy (2024-04-15). "Beyond Pizza and Yale: What to See, Eat and Do in New Haven". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  13. ^ "AAAS Members Elected as Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2024-08-09.
  14. ^ "Seton Elm-Ivy Awards awarded to people and groups connecting town and gown". YaleNews. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
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