Ashley Dowling

Ashley Dowling is a Professor in the Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology at the University of Arkansas. She specializes in systematics, biodiversity, and evolutionary biology of mites (Acari), with a focus on water mites, velvet mites, and tickborne diseases. Her research integrates morphological and molecular methods to address questions in parasite evolution and host associations. Dowling also serves as Director of the Summer Acarology Program and previously held a role as Program Director at the NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

Education: B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (University of Arizona), Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (University of Michigan).

Research Interests: Biodiversity of micro-arthropods, mite-host coevolution, and conservation of understudied arthropod groups. Current projects include NSF-funded studies on parasitengona mites and collaborations with citizen scientists to track tick distributions.

Publications: Over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including work on mite systematics, tickborne allergies, and arthropod biodiversity in Arkansas. Recent focus areas include water mite phylogeny and nasal mites in birds.

Awards: Recognized for teaching excellence (Gamma Sigma Delta, 2014) and mentorship (University of Arkansas, 2014).

Lab & Collaborations: Dowling Lab focuses on micro-arthropod diversity in the Interior Highlands. Active projects involve genomic studies of mites, K-12 outreach, and tick pathogen surveillance with community scientists.