Dr. Terry Dial

Biography

Dr. Terry Dial is an evolutionary biologist who works at the intersection of organismal form, function, development and life history. His work involves field and laboratory experiments on fish, focusing on freshwater Trinidadian guppies, zebrafish and trout. Dr. Dial teaches field (ENVS 4950), laboratory (BIOL 2320 & 2420) and online (NR 6580) courses at the Moab Statewide campus in the Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Biology Department. Dr. Dial’s PhD is in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Brown University in Providence, RI. He has a MS in Biology from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT and a BS in Biology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. George Lauder at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Current research projects include: 1) evolution of form and function in Trinidadian guppies, which involves both the genetic basis and phenotypic plasticity underlying population-level divergences in guppy head shape and feeding specializations; 2) ontogeny of flow refuging in Rainbow trout, which utilizes high speed videography and flow visualization technology to better understand the behavior of trout swimming in turbulent flows.