Dr. Joseph Ely

Dr. Joseph S. Ely joined the Biology Program during the spring of 2002 and started as an assistant professor during Aug 2003. The delay in appointment was a result of his being deployed to Afghanistan during 2002 and 2003 with his Army Reserve unit. His research interests are grassland and wetland ecology. Specific research interests include plant population ecology, boreal ecology, plant competition, meta-populations, biometry, modeling, and geographic information systems.

Dr. Ely grew up in upstate New York. He received his B.S. in biology and chemistry from Salem College, Salem, WV in 1988, M. S. in biological sciences at Marshall University, Huntington, WV in 1993, and Ph.D. in Plant Biology in 2001 at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL. Dr. Ely held a post-doctoral position at SIUC, under the direction of Dale H. Vitt, till he was deployed overseas. His Master’s thesis, under the direction of Dan K. Evans, focused on plant communities among embayments along the mid to mid-upper Ohio River floodplain, and his dissertation involved the study of the Core-Satellite Species Hypothesis in shale glades and forest openings in southern Illinois, under the direction of David J. Gibson.

Dr. Ely continues collaboration with experts in his field and his research work includes experimental design, statistical analysis, simulation, and modeling of multi-species interactions.