David Jablonski

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David Jablonski is professor of geophysical sciences and chair of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. His research focuses upon the ecology and biogeography of the origin of major novelties, the evolutionary role of mass extinctions—in particular the K-T extinction—and other large-scale processes in the history of life. As a lecturer, he is known for his extreme enthusiasm.

Jablonski was educated at Columbia University (earning his B.A. in 1974) and completed his graduate work at Yale (with his M.S. in 1976 and Ph.D. in 1979). As an undergraduate he worked at The American Museum of Natural History in the City of New York, NY. Then continued his postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1985 he was hired by the University of Chicago.

In 1988 the Paleontological Society awarded Jablonski with the Charles Schuchert Award, which is given to persons under 40 "whose work reflects excellence and promise in paleontology."

He is married to Susan Kidwell, another University of Chicago paleontologist, who is herself very notable in the subject of taphonomy.

[edit] Selected publications

Jablonski, D. ed. et al. (1996) Evolutionary Paleobiology Univ. of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-38913-8
Jablonski, D. et al. (1997) Macroevolution in the 21st Century. International Senckenberg Conference and Workshop.
Jablonski, D. (2000) Micro- and macroevolution: scale and hierarchy in evolutionary biology and paleobiology. Paleobiology 26(4): 15-52.
Jablonski, D. (2001) Lessons from the past: evolutionary impacts of mass extinctions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 5393-98.
Jablonski, D. (2002) Survival without recovery after mass extinctions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99: 8139-8144.
Jablonski, D. (2002) A more modern synthesis American Scientist 90 (July-August): 368-371.
Jablonski, D. (2004) Extinction: Past and present. Nature 427: 589
Jablonski, D. (2005) Mass extinctions and macroevolution Paleobiology 31(2): 192-210.