The meeting of the Good Water Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist will be held Thursday, February 23, 2017, and will feature a presentation on the Georgetown Salamander by Dr. Benjamin Pierce, Professor of Biology at Southwestern University, which he Open to the public
Meeting Details: 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Texas Master Naturalists, Good Water Chapter monthly meeting held in the Williamson County, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office meeting room, 3151 SE Inter Loop, Georgetown, TX 78626 (map)
Schedule: 6:00 pm Social Time with light refreshments, 6:30 pm a short business meeting & announcements, followed by the presentation at 7:00 pm, and ending at approximately 8:00 pm.
Short Bio of Speaker
Title: The Biology of the Georgetown Salamander, Eurycea naufragia
Bio: Benjamin A. Pierce, Ph. D, Professor of Biology and holder of the Lillian Nelson Pratt Chair at Southwestern University, Georgetown.
Dr. Benjamin Pierce received a B.S. in Biology from Southern Methodist University and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Dr. Pierce worked as assistant professor at Connecticut College from 1980-1984, and then took a position on the faculty at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he taught for 20 years. In 2005, Dr. Pierce joined the faculty at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, where he is Professor of Biology and holder of the Lillian Nelson Pratt Chair.
Dr. Pierce is a population geneticist who conducts ecological and evolutionary research on amphibians. He has authored 42 articles in research journals and four books, including “Genetics: A Conceptual Approach” a general genetics textbook that is now in its 6th edition. His genetics textbooks have been adopted at over 300 colleges and universities and have been translated into 5 foreign lan guages.
Dr. Pierce conducts research with his undergraduate students on development of better sampling techniques for amphibians and on the ecology and evolution of the endemic Georgetown salamander, Eurycea naufragia. He teaches courses in genetics, evolution, methods in ecology and evolution, and first-year seminar.