Christopher Higgins

Christopher Higgins is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University, West campus. Since 2020 he has designed and delivered multiple high-enrolment biology courses and immersive experiential-learning initiatives that integrate adaptive learning technologies and citizen-science projects.

Education: Specific degrees and institutions are not listed in the supplied text.

Research interests centre on biodiversity science, metacommunity ecology and conservation biology. Over two decades he has investigated how hurricanes, desertification, climate and habitat fragmentation influence the diversity and distribution of organisms ranging from tropical snails and Sahelian arthropods to Atlantic-Forest small mammals and Neotropical bats.

His 30+ peer-reviewed articles reveal a consistent emphasis on quantifying community structure across taxa (fish, bats, gastropods, parasites) and ecosystems (streams, forests, deserts), utilising phylogenetic, functional and spatial approaches to disentangle historical biogeography from contemporary anthropogenic change.

Teaching & Mentoring: Higgins leads large iCourses (The Living World, General Biology, Conservation in Practice) reaching ~1,400 students annually, mentors students via honours contracts and NCUIRE undergraduate-research teams, and directs citizen-science efforts such as the ASU West Global BioBlitz and Saguaro Snapshot Challenge.

Labs & Teams: While no dedicated laboratory is named, he routinely supervises student research teams under NCUIRE and honours programmes, linking classroom learning to community-based conservation projects like West Valley Gardens.