Dale Stevens, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Office: NSB, Room 325
Email: drstevens@wtamu.edu
Phone: 806-651-2572
Professional Profile
Dr. Stevens joined the LEES department in the Fall of 2024. He received his Ph.D. from Clark University in 2022 and served as a post-doctoral researcher and a visiting assistant professor at Michigan State University and Bucknell University from 2022-2024.
Teaching and Related Service
Dr. Stevens is teaching Ecology in the Fall, and has an interest in teaching Animal Behavior, Urban Ecology, Biometry, and Evolution in future semesters.
Research and Creative Activity
Dr. Stevens is an evolutionary biologist, who has an interest in understanding how animals adapt and evolve in response to human disturbance. As an undergraduate, he worked with the western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) and studied how they adapt to the urban heat island effect. As a Ph.D. student, he worked with the threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and asked how their behavioral plasticity has evolved following the introduction of an invasive predator, the Northen pike fish (Esox lucius).
Here at WT, his research will return to asking how black widow spiders have evolved following the urbanization of the Texas landscape, in addition to how these native widow spiders are adapting to the presence of an invasive spider, the brown widow (Latrodectus geometricus). Before coming to WT, he published 10 peer-reviewed articles, and is highly committed to publishing manuscripts with undergraduate researchers. Dr. Stevens actively presents his research at national conferences and is a member of the Animal Behavior Society (ABS) and the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB). He intends to become more involved in the American Arachnological Society (AAS) during his time at WT.