UTT Announces Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation

TYLER — The University of Texas at Tyler has established a multidisciplinary research and education center to study and conserve biodiversity. According to a news release, the UT Tyler Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation will work to find practical solutions to species’ declines and extinctions through collaborative partnerships. Biology professor and center director Dr. Neil Ford cites “the rapid loss of biodiversity both globally and locally,” prompting “an urgent need to investigate the causes of species extinction.” The center involves 19 UT Tyler faculty members from five departments and three colleges. The organisms being investigated include insects, snakes, freshwater fish and mussels, turtles, crayfish and plants that inhabit aquatic and terrestrial habitats.