Rate My Professor Michelle Evans-White

Michelle Evans-White is a professor of biology and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, a position she assumed in 2022 as the department's first female chair. She joined the faculty in 2008 as an assistant professor, advancing to full professor and vice chair by 2018. Evans-White earned a B.A. in biochemistry, a B.S. in biology, and an M.S. in biology from Kansas State University, followed by a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Notre Dame. She completed postdoctoral research associateships at both Kansas State University and the University of Notre Dame. She holds the Keck Professorship and Endowed Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences. Her research centers on community and ecosystem ecology, exploring the interface between these levels, including how biodiversity influences ecosystem function, how anthropogenic factors such as pollutants alter animal consumer roles in ecosystems, and the ecosystem consequences of host-virus interactions. A member of the university's Host-Virus Evolutionary Dynamics Institute, she serves as a co-investigator on a $6.1 million National Science Foundation Biology Integration Institute grant. As principal or co-principal investigator, she has obtained funding exceeding $7.37 million.

Evans-White has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, databases, and book chapters, with highly cited works including 'Rapid expansion of natural gas development poses a threat to surface waters' (2011, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment), 'Toxins in transgenic crop byproducts may affect headwater stream ecosystems' (2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), 'Acute and chronic toxicity of imidazolium-based ionic liquids on Daphnia magna' (2005, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry), 'Are you what you eat? Physiological constraints on organismal stoichiometry in an elementally imbalanced world' (2005, Oikos), and 'Thresholds in macroinvertebrate biodiversity and stoichiometry across water-quality gradients in Central Plains (USA) streams' (2009, Journal of the North American Benthological Society). She has mentored or served on committees for 86 graduate and undergraduate students and directs a longstanding NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program on sustainable management of ecosystem services at the food-energy-water nexus, with over 70% participants from under-represented groups. She also contributes as co-investigator to the NSF Research Coordination Network BACCUS. Evans-White teaches courses such as general ecology, community and ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, stream ecology, field ecology, and ecological stoichiometry. Her service includes representing the University of Arkansas on the American Public Land-Grant University Board of Natural Resources, serving on the Society for Freshwater Science Election and Place Committee and the university's Toxic Substances Committee, and acting ex officio on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.