David C. Blackburn

David C. Blackburn is a Professor and Associate Director of Research and Collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. He chairs the Department of Natural History and holds affiliations with multiple departments including Biology and Wildlife Ecology & Conservation. His roles include leading the NSF-funded oVert project and serving as a Fellow of AAAS and the California Academy of Sciences. Blackburn specializes in amphibian diversity, evolution, and conservation, particularly African frogs, with research spanning field expeditions, fossil analysis, and digital museum collections. He has supervised numerous graduate students and postdocs, contributing over 140 peer-reviewed publications. His work integrates morphological, genetic, and ecological datasets to address questions in systematics, biogeography, and conservation.

• Education: Ph.D., Harvard University; A.B., University of Chicago
• Affiliations: School of Natural Resources and Environment, Center for African Studies

Research interests include frog evolution, fossil records, and the application of CT imaging to museum specimens. Notable projects include describing new species, analyzing amphibian pathogen dynamics, and studying frog dispersal mechanisms. His lab collaborates globally, with fieldwork in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Awards: AAAS Fellow (2023), SEC Academic Leadership Program Fellow, NSF grants. Grants support projects on African frog diversification and amphibian microbiome studies.

Labs/Teams: Blackburn Lab focuses on amphibian systematics and conservation; leads the openVertebrate (oVert) initiative digitizing vertebrate collections. Collaborates with institutions like the California Academy of Sciences and New Brunswick Museum.