FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Bill Hamilton

DEPARTMENT CHAIR; PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

What classes are you teaching?

BIOL 111: Yellowstone Ecology; BIOL 330 Experimental Botany: Global Climate Change; and BIOL 332: Plant Functional Ecology (ST in Yellowstone)

Can you tell us about the research / scholarship projects you are working on right now (or projects recently completed)?

My students and I have been working with the National Park Service since 2013 on a long-term grazing project, which is funded by the Department of Interior. It focuses on the effects of Bison grazing (but Elk, Pronghorn and Blacktail deer graze the sites too) on grassland productivity, soil organic matter decomposition and nitrogen cycling (including microbial abundance and diversity). Since 2013, we have monitored over 35 sites in Yellowstone; in the last three years, we have added the monitoring of bird and arthropod diversity.

Studying the environment can sometimes be disheartening. What is something you have seen or read recently that makes you excited about the environment?

Bill McKibben’s talk, “The Climate of Climate: Are We Finally Starting to Move,” which he presented in the University Chapel at W&L.

What music (artists, genre, album, etc) is getting the most play on your speakers lately? Always the Beastie Boys, Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers. 