Chris Funk

Picture of Chris Funk

Director, Global Biodiversity Center

Professor, Department of Biology, Colorado State University

Chris Funk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, an Advising Faculty member in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at CSU, and Director of the Global Biodiversity Center housed at SoGES. Trained as an evolutionary ecologist and conservation geneticist, he focuses on understanding the mechanisms that generate and maintain biodiversity. He primarily studies vertebrates—including amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals—in tropical South America and the western U.S., although a new branch of his research program focuses on aquatic insects. His main interest lies in addressing questions of fundamental importance in evolutionary ecology that also have important conservation applications. He studies common species as models for testing evolutionary and conservation theory, as well as threatened and endangered species to inform their conservation and management. He was an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow in 2015.