Taylor Edwards

Conservation Biologist Taylor Edwards is an Associate Staff Scientist at the University of Arizona Genetics Core, where he and his team conducted the public testing for National Geographic's Genographic Project (an innovative global program in which people can trace their ancestry back 60,000 years using markers in their DNA). His background includes a combination of wildlife ecology and molecular biology, and he blends the two disciplines in his own research to answer questions about the conservation of species. 

Taylor’s work covers a variety of species ranging from plants to fishes, but his specialty is reptiles and amphibians. He is a leading expert on tortoise genetics whose Ph.D. work led to the description of a new species of tortoise and the preservation of crucial habitat in Mexico. At home in deserts and rain forests, his research has taken him to China, Brazil, Mexico, Namibia, and Cameroon—as well as to the canyons of America's desert southwest.