Rate My Professor Timothy Van Deelen

Timothy Van Deelen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his BS in Biology from Calvin College in 1988, MS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 1991, and PhD in Wildlife Ecology from Michigan State University in 1995. His career includes positions at the Illinois Natural History Survey from 1995 to 2001, where he advanced from Assistant to Associate Professional Scientist and held adjunct faculty roles, followed by Natural Resource Scientist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources from 2001 to 2004. He joined UW-Madison in 2004 as Assistant Professor, promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and full Professor in 2016. Additional roles include Director of the GreenHouse Undergraduate Learning Community, Chair of the Environmental Conservation professional Master’s program at the Nelson Institute, and Beers-Bascom Professor in Conservation from 2015 to 2020.

Van Deelen specializes in wildlife ecology, focusing on population dynamics, conservation, and management of large mammals such as deer, wolves, bears, and elk in the Great Lakes region and beyond. His research addresses predator-prey interactions, disease transmission like chronic wasting disease, urban wildlife, and human-wildlife conflicts. He has authored approximately 105 peer-reviewed publications, six book chapters, and co-edited "Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States." Notable papers include "Temporal habitat partitioning and spatial use of coyotes and red foxes in east-central Illinois" (2003, 283 citations) and studies on white-tailed deer survival and migrations. Van Deelen has received the Jim McDonough Award (2024) and Fellowship from The Wildlife Society (2020) for his contributions, along with the Robert G. F. and Hazel T. Spitze Land Grant Faculty Award (2019), Beers-Bascom Professorship, and others. He has mentored numerous graduate students, served as president of state chapters of The Wildlife Society, and contributed to editorial boards and committees. His work influences wildlife management policies in Wisconsin and the region.