Dr. Ed Heist is Associate Professor in Fisheries and Zoology at
Southern Illinois University Carbondale where he runs the Fisheries and
Illinois Aquaculture Center's Fish Genetics Laboratory. He received his
Ph.D. in 1994 from the College of William and Mary and performed
postdoctoral research at Texas A&M University. His research employs the
tools of molecular genetics including allozymes, DNA sequencing, and DNA
microsatellite analysis to study freshwater and marine fishes. Much of
his research involves sharks, including studies of population genetics
in blacktip shark and molecular ecology of nurse sharks. Other projects
ongoing in the fish genetics lab include genetic discrimination of
shovelnose and pallid sturgeons and genetic stock structure of
paddlefish.
Dr. Heist is an active member of the American Fisheries Society, the
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the American
Elasmobranch Society. He currently teaches graduate-level courses in
fish genetics and molecular genetics techniques and an undergraduate
fish biology course.
