Samantha Hopkins

Samantha Hopkins is a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, where she has been a faculty member since 2007. She is also Faculty-in-Residence with the Clark Honors College, contributing to undergraduate academic life and mentorship.

Her research is centered on vertebrate paleontology, systematics, and paleoecology, focusing on the evolutionary history and ecological interactions of ancient vertebrates. She integrates morphological, phylogenetic, and environmental data to understand how species and ecosystems have changed over geological time. Her work contributes to broader fields such as evolutionary biology and paleobiology.

Dr. Hopkins earned her B.S. in 1999 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and completed her Ph.D. in 2005 at the University of California, Berkeley. Her academic training laid the foundation for her current research program in paleontological sciences.

She maintains an active research presence through her lab blog at http://blogs.uoregon.edu/vertpaleo/, where updates on projects, fieldwork, and student involvement are shared.

There are no listed scientific awards or publications in the provided text, but her sustained academic position and research focus indicate ongoing scholarly activity.

She advises students through her role in the Clark Honors College and in the Earth Sciences department, though specific advisees are not named. She has not received any explicitly mentioned grants in the provided material.

Her research group, associated with the Vertebrate Paleontology lab at the University of Oregon, engages in interdisciplinary studies combining geology, biology, and environmental science to reconstruct past life and ecosystems.