Rate My Professor Colin Sumrall

Colin D. Sumrall serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin, completing his studies between 1990 and 1996. Following his doctoral work, Sumrall held the position of Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center from January 1998 to May 2002. He joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, initially as a lecturer in geology and advanced to assistant professor before attaining his current associate professor rank. Throughout his career at UTK, he has been recognized for excellence in teaching, receiving the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008 and the James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Sumrall’s research centers on the paleobiology, phylogeny, systematics, and evolutionary history of echinoderms, employing these organisms as models to elucidate broader patterns in the history of life on Earth. His investigations encompass the phylogenetic framework of the echinoderm radiation, the influence of geographic sampling bias on paleontological interpretations, the integration of fossil data into phylogenetic analyses, ontogenetic mechanisms driving morphological evolution, and quantitative assessments of echinoderm morphological disparity in three-dimensional space. With 191 peer-reviewed publications to his credit, Sumrall’s scholarship has accumulated 2,261 citations. Notable contributions include “Universal Elemental Homology in Glyptocystitoids, Hemicosmitoids, Coronoids and Blastoids: Steps Toward Echinoderm Phylogenetic Reconstruction in Derived Blastozoa” (2012), “Ordovician edrioasteroids from Morocco: Faunal exchanges across the Rheic Ocean” (2011), “Kailidiscus, A New Plesiomorphic Edrioasteroid from the Basal Middle Cambrian Kaili Biota of Guizhou Province, China” (2010), “The biological implications of an edrioasteroid attached to a pleurocystitid rhombiferan” (2000), and recent works such as those on Permian-Triassic biodiversity shifts and ancient deep-ocean ophiuroid microfossils (2023-2024). He advises graduate students in paleobiology and paleontology, leads research on fossil echinoderm evolution, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Paleontological Society’s Elements of Paleontology book series. Sumrall has delivered invited public lectures, including at the Cincinnati Fossil Fest, and contributed to departmental initiatives like field trips and hosting professional meetings.