American Society of Naturalists

The ASN 2025 Election will be held during the month of March for the offices of President, Vice President, and Treasurer. Please see the candidates’ statements below. The election website randomizes the order for each person voting. The names below are in alphabetical order.

President

The PRESIDENT leads the ASN Executive Council and selects the membership of the award and officer nomination committees. The President selects the President’s Award for the “best” paper in The American Naturalist in the past year, gives the ASN Presidential Address and presents the Society’s awards at the annual meeting, and represents the ASN in multiple other ways through the year. The President serves on the Executive Council for five years, including one year as President-Elect and three years as a Past-President.

Diane R. Campbell, University of California, Irvine

I would be highly honored to be chosen as President of the American Society of Naturalists. I have always felt that this society best represents my interests and approach to science, which combine a deep passion for natural history with testing of broad biological concepts. My research addresses evolution in natural plant populations. Under this umbrella, I integrate methods and concepts from ecology, evolution, genetics, behavior, and physiology to study how processes at all life history stages influence evolution of an organism. I have worked extensively on plant-pollinator interactions and evolution of reproductive traits, and on hybrid zones and speciation. I am currently examining how changes in climate influence the evolution of phenotypic traits and its role in affecting the persistence of threatened populations, capitalizing on my decades of field research on plants in subalpine habitats.

My initial interest in biology grew from exploring the rocky tidepools of California in my youth. I received a BS from Stanford University and a PhD in Zoology (with Mark Rausher) with a minor in Mathematics from Duke University. After a brief postdoc with Nickolas Waser, I became a faculty member for five years at the University of Virginia and then went on to the University of California, Irvine, where I eventually became a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I am an elected Fellow of the AAAS.

I have served the community in a variety of ways, including service to professional societies, educational institutions, and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). I have been a member of the ASN since my time as a postdoc and have reviewed a large number of manuscripts for the journal. I am eager for the chance to give back to the society in a larger way, as its mission to promote conceptual unification has inspired my integration of ecology and evolution since I was a graduate student researching plants within a zoology department. I have served as elected council member to the Society for the Study of Evolution and as Associate Editor for journals including Evolution, Functional Ecology, and Journal of Evolutionary Biology. At my own institution I chaired a revision of the major in Ecology and Evolution, led workshops for diverse undergraduates in how to apply for summer NSF-REU programs and worked on pay equity.

For most of my career, I have done field research at the RMBL, where I have twice served on the Board of Trustees as well as a dozen committees, including Board Structure and Function, Research, and Education. In 2019 I founded a committee on Communication between the board and scientists that has organized activities including excursions for non-scientist trustees to accompany scientists on data-gathering field trips and discussions of how to increase diversity and inclusion. For the past eight summers I have volunteered time teaching others about use of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in studying plant chemistry and maintaining that instrument for other researchers. I have also developed educational modules internationally. As a Fulbright Specialist in Environmental Sciences, I developed exercises for students at the University of Otago in New Zealand and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and have similarly developed an educational module for the University of Puerto Rico. In 2024 I worked with a designer on an art/science exhibit about impacts of climate change on flower scent for the Design Museum in London.

The ASN is a society devoted to the conceptual unification of the biological sciences bringing together scientists from many disciplines. As President I would be excited to encourage conceptually driven, integrative science by supporting smaller meetings, including, but not limited to, the successful stand-alone meetings held at Asilomar. I would work to broaden the participation of diverse and international early career scientists in these meetings, through fundraising for additional awards and less expensive meetings. I would like to encourage more new members to join ASN, for example by publicizing our meeting and journal through a symposium connected with a special issue. At the same time, we must continue to strongly support our ties with our sister societies SSE and SSB and travel to the joint meetings, to facilitate communication with a broad group of scientists. In these challenging times, I will strongly advocate for all of the society’s mission, including education, reliable and sufficient funding for environmental science, and fostering an equitable and inclusive community of scientists. We must stand up to attacks on science, on our own and in coordination with our sister societies.

Jennifer A. Lau, Indiana University

I am honored to be nominated and enthusiastic about the potential to serve as ASN president. My research spans from community ecology to evolution, but I am most excited by questions at the nexus of these two disciplines: how community context affects evolution and how evolution affects community functioning. My research has been heavily influenced by the past and current members of the ASN and by reading the American Naturalist—nowhere else are ecology, evolution, and behavior so fully integrated.

I received my B.S. in Biology from Duke University and my PhD from UC Davis, working with Sharon Strauss. I then moved to Minnesota for a postdoc with Peter Tiffin, Ruth Shaw, and Peter Reich and then to Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), where I was an Assistant and then Associate Professor and became involved in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. In 2018, I moved to Indiana University, where I am now Professor. My training at Davis covered both ecology and evolution, and my years at KBS taught me how to apply that broad perspective in new ways, such as capitalizing on the LTER and its long-term community and ecosystem data to better understand evolution.

I have long appreciated the ASN, starting with receiving the Young Investigators’ Award (now the “ASN Early Career Investigator Award”) and participating in the award symposium when I was a postdoc. I then served on the Graduate Student Research Awards Committee (2014–2015) and was elected to the ASN Executive Council in 2016 as Secretary and served for 6 years (3 as Secretary, 3 as past-Secretary). In 2019, I was asked to serve as one of the Editors for the American Naturalist and did so until 2023. This was one of the most challenging, but also rewarding, experiences of my career. Reading over 200 manuscripts a year is no small task, but the work submitted to Am Nat is phenomenal, and the discussions and interactions with authors, reviewers, and associate editors were truly engaging. The pandemic made that time more challenging, but reading manuscripts and thoughtful associate editor decisions and reviews was often the highlight of my day. I currently serve on the ASN Committee for the Conceptual Unification of the Biological Sciences Award and also have served on several award committees for the Ecological Society of America. I have become increasingly involved in the LTER Network, serving on the KBS LTER exec team since 2014 and the LTER 40-year review committee in 2019.

Throughout my career, I had the good fortune to benefit from truly great mentors, both formal and informal, nearly all of whom have played fundamental roles in the ASN. If elected President, I would advocate for programs that continue that tradition of supporting more junior scientists, including maintaining existing programs like the mentor match-ups and mixers run by the ASN Diversity committee, but also soliciting ideas from the membership for new programs that expand and increase the accessibility of these activities. Relatedly, one of the great things about the ASN is its ability to get biologists talking science across ecology and evolution, whether in our journal or in person at Asilomar. We have strong connections to the evolution community through the tri-society Evolution meetings. As ASN president, I would advocate for expanding our ties to the ecological community, potentially by building connections to the regional Ecological Society of America meetings that have recently begun. Finally, ASN is prevented from political advocacy because of our non-profit designation; however, we can be general advocates for science. Given the current climate for science funding and public perceptions about science, such advocacy has never been more important. ASN’s roots in natural history and our history of bridging across disciplines give us tools for effectively engaging as science advocates. I would like to explore ways for ASN to facilitate that advocacy, whether it’s by training ourselves how to more effectively share our science with broader audiences or facilitating events that bridge barriers between scientists and the general public.

Vice President

The VICE-PRESIDENT organizes the Vice-President’s Symposium for the annual meeting and edits the special supplement to The American Naturalist that contains the papers derived from the VP Symposium. The Vice-President is also the Society’s liaison for the organizers of the annual meeting. The Vice-President serves as a member of the Executive Council for three years, including one year as Vice-President Elect and one year as a Past Vice President.

Andrew P. Hendry, McGill University

Darwin famously proclaimed that “we see nothing of these slow changes in progress until the hand of time has marked the long lapse of ages”; whereas we now know that organisms evolve rapidly on years to decades. My students and I study this contemporary (rapid) evolution in several systems, including salmon, finches, guppies, and stickleback. Further, the realization that traits evolving so rapidly often mediate interactions between organisms and their environment has led us to increasingly focus on how rapid evolution shapes ecological dynamics in nature. I recently summarized these ideas in a book titled Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics (2017 – Princeton Univ. Press).

My path to research began when my parents instilled in me a fascination with natural history, which continues to motivate me to this day. I conducted my graduate studies at the University of Washington School of Fisheries, where my supervisor (Tom Quinn) suggested that I study the possible rapid evolution of salmon introduced into Lake Washington. This early exposure to the possibility of evolution being rapid – before it was “a thing” – eventually led me to postdocs on stickleback (UBC), guppies (UMASS Amherst), and finches (UMASS Amherst).

After many job rejections, I was hired at McGill University in 2002, where I have been ever since. My proudest achievement as a Professor has been the amazing and diverse set of students I have helped toward their preferred careers, ranging from academia to government to NGOs to tribal agencies. I am particularly proud of the fact that every one of the more than 35 graduate students who started their degrees with me ultimately completed their degrees with me. I also dedicated more than a decade to capacity building in Latin America, especially through an NSERC CREATE training grant. That program supported more than 50 graduate students, half of whom were from Latin America.

Academic societies always have been the touchstone, or even “home,” for my academic development and career. Recognizing their importance, I have worked to strengthen and support societies for the benefit of students and scientists into the future. I was on the first elected council of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, for whom I organized a joint meeting with other Canadian societies in 2014. I have also been an Associate Editor of Evolution and several other society-based journals.

The American Society of Naturalists (ASN) has been my longest and most-consistent society engagement. I have been a member continuously for decades, and – in fact – I hold the interesting distinction of being the first person to purchase a lifetime membership in the society. I have attended four of the stand-alone meetings as they are the best forum to exchange ideas, build and reinforce collaborations, and – especially – build a sense of community at the interface of ecology and evolution. For this reason, I volunteered to co-organize the most recent (2025) meeting at Asilomar. It was an initially scary prospect that proved immensely rewarding in helping to ensure continuation of this amazing tradition – and further growth of the society.

As VP of ASN, I will leverage my experience with social media and outreach to help the society generate a series of videos that promote the student-led research published in The American Naturalist. Further, I will organize a symposium that merges the core aspects of the society: ecology, evolution, and natural history. I would invite a diverse set of speakers who conduct ecological and evolutionary research – especially experiments – that leverage a deep understanding of the system’s natural history. I strongly believe that understanding, predicting, and protecting our future will rely now – more than ever – on a deep and intimate understanding of the natural world.

Martha M. Muñoz, Yale University

I am excited to be considered for the position of Vice President in the American Society of Naturalists. I am an evolutionary biologist, and my research centers on discovering the motors and brakes of evolution. One of the most conspicuous features of evolution is its uneven pace: whereas some traits and lineages appear relatively inert for millions of years, others diversify rapidly. What causes this disparity? Why does evolution accelerate in some lineages and stall in others? Focusing primarily on reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, I investigate the biotic and abiotic mechanisms that guide the rate of evolution. To this end, my work weaves together approaches in ecology, evolution, behavior, physiology, biomechanics, comparative phylogenetics, and more. Much of my work has centered on investigating the role of behavior in evolution, specifically on the role for homeostatic behaviors (like thermo- and hydroregulation) to set the pace for physiological and morphological evolution, and to guide spatial patterns of biodiversity. The intellectual breadth and vitality of both the society and the journal have been fundamental to my growth as a scientist, and also a home for some of my favorite studies!

I received a BA in Biology from Boston University (2007), where I performed my first studies on Caribbean anoles. I then completed a PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard (2014), where I studied with Jonathan Losos. I followed up my doctoral work with postdoctoral fellowships at the Australian National University (with Craig Moritz) and Duke (with Sheila Patek). While at Duke, I received the ASN Early Career Investigator Prize. After these postdoctoral fellowships, I joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech in 2017 as an assistant professor. In 2019 I joined the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, where I also serve as a Curator of Vertebrate Zoology in the Yale Peabody Museum. Beyond life at the university, I have been enjoying all the excellent hiking that New England offers.

Throughout my career I have served the academic community in a range of roles. I served as the Program Officer (2022–23) and Secretary (2019–20) for the Division of Ecology and Evolution in the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB). I also served on the SICB Public Affairs Committee (2017–21) and the SICB Bartholomew Award Committee (2022). I was an Associate Editor for Integrative Organismal Biology (a SICB journal) from 2021–2022. I am currently a Council Member (2024-26) for the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), for which I serve on the Finance Committee and on the Graduate Research Excellence Grants committee.

I have also participated in the American Society of Naturalists in a variety of roles. I have served on the Early Career Investigator Award Committee since 2023 and am currently serving as the 2025 committee chair. I became an Associate Editor for The American Naturalist in 2022. I appreciate that Associate Editors and the Editors for Am. Nat. play a direct role in the review process, and that the journal has a long tradition of providing rigorous and courteous review; these features motivated me to join the board and my wonderful experience working with the authors, editors, and journal staff encourage me to continue. In my role as AE, I find it especially rewarding to work with early career authors on their manuscripts.

The American Society of Naturalists is special in our field by providing a place where ecology, evolution, behavior, and organismal biology intentionally intersect. The intellectual contours of integrative biology can all find their home in the ASN. My goal would be to help contribute to this long-standing integrative vision through the VP symposium. I would organize a symposium on the role of behavior in evolution. My goal would be to make this topic broadly circumscribed and integrative. I would invite speakers whose work span a wide range of complementary topics, such as niche construction, the role of behavior in adaptive radiation, sexual selection and mate choice, the evolution of behavior, community ecology, ecophysiology, eco-evo dynamics, global change biology, and macroevolution, among others.

Treasurer

The TREASURER manages the accounts of the ASN, tracks all revenues and expenses, arranges for official annual financial reviews and tax return preparation, files tax returns, makes payments for all annual awards and travel reimbursements related to the annual meeting, keeps track of revisions to the award amounts and reimbursement policies, and prepares the annual Treasurer’s Report. The Treasurer also convenes a Finance Committee comprised of two other members of the Executive Council, for making investment decisions as needed. The Treasurer serves on the Executive Council for six years, three as a regular member and three as Past Treasurer.

Stephen R. Proulx, University of California, Santa Barbara

It is a real honor to be nominated to serve as Treasurer for The American Society of Naturalists and to have a chance to continue to participate in this organization, which has brought so much to my life over the years. I first really became aware of the journal in graduate school, when I would spend lunch in the grad library reading both the very old and latest issues. That was when I learned how much richer the scope of scientific discovery and discourse could be, and knew that the kind of science promoted by The American Naturalist was something I wanted to be involved in. Participating in this society and attending joint and stand-alone meetings helped me to grow into the evolutionary ecologist I am today.

My academic path started as an undergraduate at UC Santa Cruz, where I studied mathematics and biology, and developed particular interest in behavioral ecology and population biology. I went on to work on my PhD at the University of Utah, where the environment and my interests grew to include thinking about the joint processes of ecology and evolution, and when my first scientific publication appeared in Am Nat. I followed that by taking up a postdoc at the University of Toronto, and then received an NIH postdoctoral fellowship to study the evolution of gene interactions at the University of Oregon. I was an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University before moving into my current position as a Professor at UC Santa Barbara.

Serving in my community has always been a priority and passion for me. In the past I have organized symposia at the Evolution meetings, working groups at NESCent, and stand-alone workshops at L’École Normale Supérieure in Paris. I served as an Associate Editor for Am Nat for five years. Most recently, Andrew Hendry and I served as lead organizers for the stand-alone Am Nat meeting at Asilomar in January 2025. As I have participated in these different aspects of the American Society of Naturalists, I have had the opportunity to learn more about how the organization is run and how we can continue to promote the society as a beacon of scientific exploration and inclusivity.

The Treasurer’s role involves managing the society’s finances, overseeing budgets, and ensuring funds are allocated effectively to support research, meetings, and outreach efforts. As Treasurer and a member of the executive committee I would be committed to ensuring that decisions on spending are always considered with an eye towards equity and inclusivity. This includes increasing support for individuals from historically marginalized and underseen backgrounds, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and first-generation scientists, to foster a truly diverse and welcoming scientific community. My experience in organizational leadership and working in a dispersed team, combined with my passion for promoting diverse voices in science, will allow me to make a meaningful impact in this role.

Jeremy B. Yoder, California State University Northridge

I am grateful to be nominated for Treasurer of the American Society of Naturalists. ASN has been an important part of my scientific career from the start, and I am eager to help steward the society’s scientific legacy and its future.

I study the evolution and ecology of species interactions, especially mutualisms. I earned my PhD with Olle Pellmyr at the University of Idaho, and I conducted postdoctoral research with Peter Tiffin at the University of Minnesota and Sally Aitkin at the University of British Columbia before joining the Biology faculty at California State University Northridge. I have managed peer review as an Associate Editor for Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources since 2016, and have overseen The Molecular Ecologist blog for those journals since 2012. My research and teaching at CSUN earned me early promotion, with tenure, in 2022, and I am incredibly proud to have received the 2024 IDEA Award jointly presented by ASN, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists.

My research portfolio includes ecological fieldwork, population genomics, and theory, and I have always appreciated that all these methods and perspectives appear in the pages of The American Naturalist. I have published work in Am Nat at every stage of my career, starting with my dissertation research. The Evolution meetings have been my habitual summer conference since grad school, and when I moved to California I quickly came to love the scientific community of ASN’s biennial stand-alone meetings. I also deeply value ASN’s advocacy for the irreplaceable role of science in understanding and solving the most pressing challenges facing the world today. ASN has played that role throughout its rich history of supporting and publishing foundational research in evolution, ecology and behavior over more than 150 often turbulent years.

ASN’s work to cultivate curiosity, integrity, and collegiality, and to support and celebrate accomplished and emerging scientists remains vitally important to this day. The treasurer supports every aspect of that work, and I consider the role a chance to engage more deeply with colleagues at every level, in service to the society. I would be honored to take it on.