Jonathan L. Whitney, PhD

Jonathan Whitney earned a BA from Prescott College (2005) and a PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi (2016). He conducted a joint postdoctoral research fellowship with NOAA and the University of Hawaiʻi through the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (2016–2019). He currently works in the Ecosystem Sciences Division at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. As an ecologist, Dr. Whitney conducts research that seeks to understand the ecology of the early life stages of marine fishes, how these species interact with oceanographic features, and the implications for larval dispersal, recruitment, and ecosystem functioning. As a geneticist, he combines population genetics with cutting-edge genomics to understand the origin and maintenance of reef fish biodiversity, the structure and connectivity of marine fish populations and to explore new ways to discover and monitor changes in ocean biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA).