Brent Sewall

Dr. Brent Sewall is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Temple University. His research focuses on understanding critical and emerging threats to biodiversity and developing effective strategies for conservation. He is especially interested in understanding drivers of stability in ecological communities, evaluating impacts of key threats to biodiversity, and developing practical conservation strategies for threatened species and ecosystems. Ongoing work focuses principally on clarifying drivers of the structure and dynamics of mutualistic networks in tropical forests, understanding and addressing critical and emerging threats from habitat change and emerging infectious diseases, and developing assessment and planning strategies that promote effective implementation of conservation initiatives. His work has focused on cave and forest communities in eastern North America and tropical sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Sewall is also providing technical advice on ecology and conservation to the Pennsylvania Mammal Technical Committee, the U.S. national Conservation and Recovery Working Group of the White-Nose Syndrome Action Plan, the IUCN Species Survival Commission Bat Specialist Group, and the World Commission on Protected Areas. He has received several awards, including the American Society of Mammalogists & William T. Hornaday Award for outstanding contributions to mammal conservation, the Spurr Award for outstanding outreach in ecology, the Merton Love Award for best dissertation in ecology and evolution at the University of California, Davis, and Temple University's William Caldwell Memorial Distinguished Mentoring Award. Prior to beginning his current position, Dr. Sewall was a Assistant Professor of Research at Temple University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary. Dr. Sewall received his B.A. in Arts and Sciences from Penn State University, his M.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. He was a Switzer Fellow in 2005-2006, during which time he explored the ecology of tropical rainforest communities in Madagascar and developed proposals for the establishment of rainforest protected areas in the Comoros Islands (of the western Indian Ocean).