Joshua Banta, Ph.D.

Dr. Joshua Banta is a professor of Biology at The University of Texas at Tyler. He teaches undergraduate plant biology, as well as graduate ecology and evolution courses. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000, his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in 2008, and he did his post-doctoral work at New York University before starting his position at UT Tyler in 2011. His research interests include landscape ecology, landscape genetics, evolutionary genetics, and evolutionary theory. As the Director of the Center for Environment, Biodiversity, and Conservation, he studies imperiled species of plants and aquatic animals. He has published dozens of papers in peer-review journals, including PLoS Genetics, Nature Genetics, Ecology Letters, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. He has given presentations about his research to many different institutions in the US and abroad. He engages in scientific outreach through his YouTube channel, which has over 2,400 subscribers and over 15,000 viewing hours. For many years, he also co-organized Darwin Day events in Tyler, Texas that celebrate evolution and biodiversity, serving twice as the keynote speaker.