Yale’s Post named Fellow of AAAS

David Post, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 

Post was elected to the AAAS by his peers for his “distinguished contributions to our understanding of the structure and dynamics of food webs in aquatic ecosystems in their response to environmental change,” the association announced Nov. 26.

Post has studied the impacts of environmental change on species in habitats as diverse as Connecticut lakes and the Mara River in Africa. Post and his lab have chronicled how dams built in Colonial New England triggered evolutionary changes in common alewife fish, initiating 300 to 350 years of ecological and evolutionary changes that propagated through the lake food webs. Post and his lab have also explored how diverse factors such as drought, wildebeest migration, and hippopotamus feces dramatically affect the health of the Mara River ecosystem.

This year 443 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.