Jessica J. Hellmann
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Biological Sciences
- (574) 631-7521
- Email: hellmann.3@nd.edu
- Website
- B.S., Ecology and Natural Resources Management, University of Michigan, 1996
- Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 2000
Research Emphasis: safe nuclear waste storage.
Dr. Hellmann's research concerns the impacts of human activities such as global climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, and invasive species on the distribution and abundance of life on Earth. Research in her laboratory combines field studies with mathematical modeling and molecular genetics. Centers of field activity include the Pacific Northwest, California, and the upper-Midwest at the University's Environmental Research Center. A focus of current research is testing the theories underlying the responses of species to global climate change, specifically how species reorganize their geographic distributions as climate changes. Funded projects consider the adaptation of insect populations to the edge versus the core of a geographic distribution and test the prediction that locally-adapted species will respond differently to climate change than species that are not specialized. Dr. Hellmann teaches courses in General Ecology, Global Change Biology, Biostatistics, and human interactions with the global environment (team-taught with anthropology).
Current Energy Related Research Grants
- Current funding from the Program for Ecosystem Research, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and Department of Energy.