Dr. Joshua A. Banta, Ph.D., Director

Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation

About me:
I am an Associate Professor of Biology at UT-Tyler, and I have been the Director of the Center for Environment, Biodiversity, and Conservation since January, 2019. I am an integrative biologist with a focus on conservation species. I work on a diversity of threatened or endangered taxa (crayfish, freshwater mussels, plants, snakes) to address questions relating to their genetic health and spatial distributions. I work at the genetic, population, species, community, and landscape scales, and I combine these scales whenever possible to get a fuller picture of conservation taxa. I have received funding from Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Comptroller’s Office of the State of Texas, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, and the T. L. L. Temple Foundation, and many students have been funded to work on these projects. Overall, my conservation seeks to understand how inbreeding, hybridization, and specific habitat characteristics act and interact to influence the overall health of and prudent strategies for managing species. I believe that a prudent conservation strategy requires a multi-pronged approach to understand basic information about a species, such as its health, its range, its tolerances, and its interactions with other species.

Opportunities for partnering:
If you are interested in partnering with the Center in support of our mission, I invite you to please contact me. The Center is always interested in new speakers, volunteers, and research collaborators. Our effectiveness is built upon your enthusiasm. We especially welcome students to contact us who want to get involved with conservation-related initiatives.