Rate My Professor Nathan Whelan

Nathan V. Whelan served as Assistant Research Professor from 2018 to 2025 in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences within Auburn University's College of Agriculture, holding a dual appointment as Director of the Southeast Conservation Genetics Lab for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2016 to 2025. Prior to these roles, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Auburn University from 2014 to 2016 under Kenneth Halanych, focusing on the evolution of non-bilaterian metazoans using genomic tools. Whelan earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alabama in 2013, with a dissertation titled 'Systematics, Life History, and Conservation of Leptoxis (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea: Pleuroceridae),' advised by Phillip M. Harris. He holds a B.S. in Biology (cum laude), with minors in Chemistry and Spanish, from Truman State University in 2008. His research program employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying biodiversity, conservation, and sport fish management, particularly how genetic diversity is shaped by changing environments and anthropogenic climate change.

Whelan's research interests encompass the evolution of biodiversity, phylogenomics, conservation genomics, and freshwater conservation, with a primary focus on freshwater mollusks such as Pleuroceridae, Semisulcospiridae, and Unionidae. Notable publications include 'A new endemic freshwater mussel (Bivalvia: Unionidae) genus and species, Ligodonta obscura' (ZooKeys, 2025, with Perkins et al.); 'Population genomics reveals how Pleuroceridae species respond to habitat degradation' (American Malacological Bulletin, 2025); 'Available data do not rule out Ctenophora as the sister group to all other Metazoa' (Nature Communications, 2023, with Halanych); and 'Error, signal, and the placement of Ctenophora sister to all other animals' (PNAS, 2015). He has received the Dean’s Grantsmanship Award from Auburn University (2025), Science Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Institution (2020), Annual Award for Outstanding Initial Contribution to Malacology from the London Malacological Society (2014), and Ralph L. Chermock Prize for Most Outstanding Graduate Student from the University of Alabama (2012). Whelan served as Faculty Senator for the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences from 2020 onward and mentored graduate students and postdocs. His work informs management priorities for non-marine molluscs and enhances conservation efforts for threatened aquatic species.