Davies, Neil

As director of the UCB Gump Station, I represent the University of California in French Polynesia, overseeing the University's operations and staff in Moorea.  Responsible for developing world-class research, educational, and public outreach programs, I work with our international and local partners to establish Moorea as a leading model ecosystem.  In the context of unprecedented global change, our programs aim to: (1) discover processes underlying tropical biocomplexity, particularly in coral reef systems, and (2) translate this knowledge into sustainable development through innovative eco-engineering tools and management approaches.

Biographic Information: After graduating in Zoology from Oxford University in 1990, I began a Ph.D. in Genetics at University College London.  My graduate studies focused on the evolution and population genetics of tropical insects and were based at the University of Puerto Rico and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama).  Following the completion of my Ph.D. in 1995, I studied the genetics of biological invasions at the University of Hawaii and at UC Berkeley until taking over at the Gump Station on 1 July 2000.