Joseph D. Clark
Adjunct Associate Professor

Dr. Joseph D. Clark is Laboratory Director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Southern Appalachian Field Laboratory (SAFL), located at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Clark also holds Adjunct Associate Professor appointments in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries and the Graduate Program in Ecology. The SAFL conducts hypothesis-driven environmental research focusing on Department of Interior lands in the southern Appalachians. Dr. Clark is a wildlife biologist and specializes in carnivore ecology, more specifically, population dynamics and habitat modeling. Since Dr. Clark assumed the role of Laboratory Director in 1992, the lab has produced 31 refereed publications and 45 technical reports. From 1993-1997 research grants awarded to the lab have totaled nearly $4 million, not including salaries or administrative funding.

Prior to that, he served for 9 years as a Research Biologist (bear and furbearers) and then as Assistant Chief with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. As such, Dr. Clark has a somewhat unique perspective of wildlife resource management from both the practical as well as academic side.

Dr. Clark is native to Smyrna, Georgia and received B.S.F.R. and M.S. degrees in Wildlife Biology from the University of Georgia. Later, while working for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, he received his Ph.D in Zoology from the University of Arkansas. His dissertation was titled "Ecology of Two Black Bear Populations in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas". For that work, Dr. Clark received the Commission's Certificate of Merit, the agency's highest award.

Dr. Clark has authored >40 scientific and 7 popular articles. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America; Society for Conservation Biology; The Wildlife Society;, American Society of Mammalogists; Who's Who in Science and Engineering; International Association for Bear Research and Management; and Phi Kappa Phi, Xi Sigma Pi, and Sigma Xi honor societies. He has served as President, Executive Board Member, and Newsletter Editor for the Arkansas Chapter of The Wildlife Society. In addition, he has served on a number of steering committees, working groups. Dr. Clark received the Stoddard-Burleigh-Sutton Wildlife Conservation Award, University of Georgia; Sigma Xi's Aubrey Harvey Award for Outstanding Graduate Research and the David Causey Prize for Graduate Research in Zoology, University of Arkansas; U. S. G. S. Cash Performance Awards, FY93, FY94, FY95, FY97- and was a co-recipient of Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award. Dr. Clark is a reviewer for Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society Bulletin, Ecology, Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Great Basin Naturalist, Northeast Wildlife, Southeastern Naturalist, International Association for Bear Research and Management.

Dr. Clark currently supervises 1 Ph.D. candidate and 3 M.S. candidates working on Florida panthers in south Florida and black bears in several southeastern states. His hobbies include hunting, fishing, vintage automobile restoration, and guitar. His band recently won Knoxville's Superbowl of Blues competition and will compete for the international amateur competition in Memphis.

Contact Information

Joseph D. Clark
274 Ellington Plant Sciences Bldg
(865) 974-4580
Email: jclark1@utk.edu