Tracy Langkilde Selected to Lead the Biology Department
Tracy Langkilde, associate professor of biology, has been named the new head of the Department of Biology. Effective on February 1, Langkilde replaced Douglas Cavener, who had served as the biology head for fifteen years prior to being appointed dean of the Eberly College of Science in 2015.
Langkilde said that her goals as department head focus particularly on offering outstanding educational opportunities; communicating research results to the public; and maintaining a pleasant, collaborative atmosphere.
“I hope to further increase the visibility of our excellent research and teaching; enhance graduate and postdoctoral career development opportunities; transform undergraduate education using a bottom-up approach that leverages expertise within the department; and offer enhanced pedagogy training and mentoring opportunities, especially for new faculty members,” said Langkilde. “I also aim to enhance diversity by exploring new mechanisms to recruit diverse faculty members and students, make the workplace more family-friendly and maintain the wonderfully collegial atmosphere in the department by increasing opportunities for department members to get together.”
As a researcher, Langkilde has focused on understanding how nature is organized and how species coexist. She is particularly interested in how species interactions shift over time in response to changes in the environment and corresponding selection pressures.
Langkilde is the recipient of the 2011 George Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America and the Edward D. Bellis Award in Ecology from Penn State for exceptional education and training of ecology graduate students. She is the author or co-author of 78 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has given numerous invited talks throughout the world. In addition, Langkilde is an associate editor of the journal Evolutionary Ecology, and she has served on multiple committees, councils, and teams.
Langkilde has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 2007 and was promoted to associate professor in 2012. In 2014–15, she served as the Tombros Fellow for Undergraduate Research in the Eberly College of Science. Prior to joining Penn State, Langkilde was the Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. She earned a bachelor’s degree at James Cook University in 1999 and a Ph.D. degree at the University of Sydney in 2005.