Welcome to
the Guralnick Lab.
“Our diversity is a strength…”
Our lab group focuses on biodiversity data synthesis and interdisciplinary, integrative approaches to global change biology. The tools we use range from spatial ecological modeling, phenomics and traits, to genomic approaches and we often work across spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales. Our diversity is a strength; we continue to find that integrative approaches that require multiple lines of evidence are often the most exciting to tackle.
We have long been involved in building tools and resources
Because so much of the work in lab uses digital data available from natural history collections and citizen science naturalists, we are very involved in ecological and biodiversity informatics initiatives to increase the quality, availability and utility of such datasets at the global scale. We have long been involved in building tools and resources so that anyone may access, visualize and analyze legacy and current data across a broad range of studies, especially body size, phenology and species distributions. More and more our work leverages advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Rob's taxonomic interests are very broad, and maybe yours are too.
Students work on a variety of organisms including mammals, birds, insects and plants. In many cases, students work across groups and trophic scales. Our work, both at the level of landscape and taxon, often has applied utility in the area of conservation biology.
Our lab group has a strong ethos of collaboration and our efforts are guided by a code of conduct which focuses on building an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone.
Meet Rob Guralnick
Dr. Robert Penn Guralnick
Curator of Biodiversity Informatics,
Department of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida
Dr. Guralnick approaches the question of global change using tools that span molecular based approaches to document lineage diversifications over time and space. These methods seek to field ecological approaches that document recent distribution and demography changes.
Although trained as an invertebrate biologist, his taxonomic interests are broad, and his work is often collaborative. Guralnick tends to be happiest when connecting dots between developing infrastructure to support new science and showing the power of those approaches for looking at broad scale ecogeographic patterns and their drivers.
Outside of work, he tends pets, tries to stay active even during the Florida summers and appreciates a good IPA.
Want to read Rob’s full CV for more interesting things he’s been involved in?