Rate My Professor Edward Davis

Edward Davis is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon, contributing to the Geoscience faculty as the Director of the Condon Fossil Collection and Paleontological Collections Manager for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. He earned his PhD in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. Davis began his academic career as a Geology major at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1995, conducting research in invertebrate paleontology as an undergraduate. After completing his doctorate, he held a postdoctoral position at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley from 2006 to 2007. He joined the University of Oregon in September 2013 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and advanced to Associate Professor.

Davis's research focuses on paleontology, macroecology, and evolutionary biology, particularly the evolution of traits in large mammals, biogeography of extinctions, and species responses to climate change and mass extinction events. He is a world expert on fossil antelope and studies terrestrial herbivores, whales, and carnivores, often merging paleobiological evidence from the fossil record with conservation biology to address contemporary ecological issues. His influential publications include "Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems" in Science (2017, cited 402 times), "Climate refugia: joint inference from fossil records, species distribution models and phylogeography" in New Phytologist (2014, cited 498 times), "The Neotoma Paleoecology Database, a multiproxy, international, community-curated data resource" in Quaternary Research (2018, cited 430 times), "Biodiversity and topographic complexity: modern and geohistorical perspectives" in Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2017, cited 343 times), and "Evolution of ruminant headgear: a review" in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011, cited 130 times). With more than 3,400 citations on Google Scholar, Davis has made significant contributions to paleoecology, biodiversity modeling, and mammalian evolution. He teaches courses such as Earth Sci 103: Evolving Earth, Earth Sci 418/518: Environmental Data Analysis, GEOL 431/531: Invertebrate Paleontology, GEOL 304: The Fossil Record, and GEOL 305: Evolution of the Dinosaurs, utilizing flipped classroom structures and transparent design principles to foster inclusive, evidence-based learning.