R. Daniel Hanks

I am currently the aquatic ecologist for Weyerhaeuser's Environmental Research Group for the southeastern U.S. Previously I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University in the Baldwin Conservation Laboratory. As the Palmetto Green Fellow, I acted as the science advisor and project manager for research for a state-wide land use planning initiative in South Carolina called Palmetto Green. Palmetto Green is grounded in and aims to make a tangible difference in the three pillars of sustainability: economic viability, environmental protection, and social equity. My research ranges from investigating changes in fish populations through time to simulating data to make comparisons of statistical power between methodologies to understanding how stressors on the landscape influence aquatic fauna at the community level. I am interested in the spatio-temporal gradients associated with the response of fauna to stressors on the landscape/riverscape. I am also interested in how conservation is practically applied and using science to develop tools (e.g., NatureScape and the Watershed Resources Registry online decision support tools) help on the ground practitioners with their conservation efforts.

I have an extensive teaching background that ranges from invited lectures to teaching full courses and with a variety of group types that includes high school, undergraduate, graduate, and community groups. I have been on the faculty at a Wando High School and Presbyterian College. I continued developing and honing my teaching while working on my PhD at West Virginia University where I taught as the primary instructor or as a co-instructor for GIS and remote sensing classes as well as an upper division ecology class. During my time at Clemson University I have been invited to teach several lectures on various conservation related topics, taught a graduate level class on spatial ecology and conservation (fall 2019), forested watershed management course (spring 2020), and Understanding Ecology and Ecosystems (summer 2020).