Rate My Professor Nathan Whelan

Nathan Whelan served as Assistant Research Professor, promoted to Associate Research Professor, in Auburn University's School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences from 2018 to 2025, holding a dual appointment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as Director of the Southeast Conservation Genetics Lab from 2016 to 2025. He earned a 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, and a B.S. in Biology (cum laude), with minors in Chemistry and Spanish, from Truman State University in 2008. Whelan conducted postdoctoral research at Auburn University from 2014 to 2016 under Kenneth Halanych, investigating the evolution of non-bilaterian metazoans and marine invertebrates using genomic tools, and served as instructor for a graduate-level bioinformatics class. Earlier, he held positions including predoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in 2012 and mollusk research assistant with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2013.

Whelan's research focuses on conservation genetics, systematics, taxonomy, population genetics, phylogenetics, and comparative biology, particularly of freshwater mollusks such as Pleuroceridae and Unionidae, black bass genetic management, and environmental DNA for detecting invasive and rare species. He has secured over $8 million in grants, including U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cooperative agreements totaling millions for invasive species early detection, fish disease diagnostics, and conservation genomics of species like the Brook Floater and Frosted Flatwoods Salamander. Key publications include 'Population genomics reveals how Pleuroceridae species respond to habitat degradation' (American Malacological Bulletin, 2024), 'Hidden in the hills: phylogeny of the freshwater mussel genus Alasmidonta and description of a new species' (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2023), 'Available data do not rule out Ctenophora as the sister group to all other Metazoa' (Nature Communications, 2023), and 'Ctenophore relationships and placement within the Metazoa' (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017). Awards include Auburn University's Dean’s Grantsmanship Award (2025), Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History Science Achievement Award (2020), London Malacological Society Annual Award for Outstanding Initial Contribution to Malacology (2014), and selection for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Advanced Leadership Development Program (2022). Whelan has led teams of scientists, research fellows, and graduate students, advising master's and Ph.D. candidates on projects in conservation genomics and systematics.