Tara Smiley

Tara Smiley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University. Her research integrates fossil records, modern ecological data, and geological modeling to explore how climate and landscape history shape mammalian diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure across spatio-temporal scales. She works in dynamic regions like western North America and the East African Rift, focusing on small mammals during the Cenozoic.

• Academic Rank: Assistant Professor
• University: Stony Brook University
• Department: Department of Ecology and Evolution
• Collaborations: Turkana Basin Institute, Katharine Loughney, Ethan Hyland, Jennifer Cotton

Her research emphasizes stable isotope ecology, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and diversification analysis. Key themes include ecological dynamics, mountain biodiversity gradients, mice-oscapes (modern/historical isotope ecology), and conservation paleobiology. She employs tools like 2D/3D morphometrics, isotopic niche modeling, and multi-proxy environmental reconstructions.

Recent publications highlight interdisciplinary approaches in paleobiology, including enamel proteomics (2025), climate-disease interactions (2025), and tectonic impacts on biodiversity (2024). Her work spans field studies in Turkana Basin and Mojave Desert, with NSF-funded projects on macrosystems biology and tectonic-climate coupling.

• NSF Biological Collections Postdoctoral Fellowship
• NSF Macrosystems Biology Grant
• NSF Research Coordination Grant (co-led)
• Best Student Talk Award (2015)

She mentors PhD students Megan Wyatt and Imogene Welles and collaborates with researchers like Rebecca Terry, Jennifer Cotton, and Ellen Ketterson. The Smiley Lab also engages in isotopic analysis of avian migration resilience and geohistorical biodiversity modeling.