Dr. George Middendorf
Graduate Professor
Department of Biology
Howard University
415 College Street
206 E. E. Just Hall
Washington, DC 20059
Term: 02/01/2010-01/31/2016

Dr. Middendorf's research focuses on reptilian and amphibian biology with emphases on behavior, ecology, evolution, and host-parasite interactions. He has published over 40 articles including papers on dealing with lizard resource partitioning, ecological responses to resource availability, defensive behaviors, and barriers to dispersal, as well as on biodiversity of a lowland amphibian community in Bolivia. His research results appear in such scientific journals as the following: Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, Ecology and the Environment, Climate Change, Herpetological Review, Ecological Bulletin, Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology, Capitalism, Nature and Socialism, Copeia,
Isozyme, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and Southwestern Naturalist. He has written and published book reviews, as well as book chapters that are focused on his research.

He is continuing his long-term studies of Sceloporus lizards in southeastern Arizona and of tropical herpetofaunal communities in Suriname. He has also been involved in examining environmental justice issues in urban areas, in implementing the Environmental Justice Section of the Ecological Society of America, and in developing interdisciplinary and environmental studies programs at Howard University.

Dr.Middendorf has more than 30 years of experience in a diversity of foreign activities. Between 1980 and 1990, he completed research studies in Panama, Peru, and Bolivia. He studied behavioral ecology of stomatopod crustaceans in intertidal waters of Panama, and in Peru, he conducted biological surveys of the amphibians and reptiles of the upper Amazon, Manu National Park as part of the BIOLAT Program.

In Bolivia, he conducted a herpetofaunal survey at the Beni Biosphere Reserve during the rainy season, and he served as an instructor for the BIOLAT Program there. In recent times, Dr. Middendorf served as the Howard University representative to annual meetings in Costa Rica. From 2002 until present, he has conducted herpetofaunal research in Suriname, as well as working at the University of Suriname in the Environmental Studies Program and on university-wide development of accreditation and assessment initiatives.

Although research is a major interest of Dr. Middendorf, he also teaches several graduate and undergraduate courses at Howard University. Among the courses that he teaches or has taught are the following: Science and Public Policy, Comparative Anatomy, Ecology, Ecological and Environmental Biology, Environmental Studies, Ethology, Evolution, Field Zoology, Herpetology, Interdisciplinary Research, International Studies, Animal Behavior, and Biomonitoring.

Dr. Middendorf earned his Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Tennessee, his M.A. in Psychology at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and his A.B. Degree in Psychology at Dartmouth College. He holds membership in the following societies and advisory committee: Sigma Xi, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Association of Southeastern Biologists, Ecological Society of America Herpetologists' League, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, and the congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering.