About
Daniel Reeves has been at AB since 2008 — first as an Assistant Professor, then as Associate (2014), and as Full Professor since 2020. He is the founder and principal investigator of the Tygart Stream Project, a long-term student-driven research program studying macroinvertebrate diversity and water quality in the Tygart Valley watershed of north-central West Virginia. He also leads AB's long-running biodiversity research in Appalachian karst (cave) ecosystems.
A native of southwestern Virginia, Reeves holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the Pennsylvania State University (2003), an M.S. in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech (1999), and a B.S. in Biology from Berea College (1996). He spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute before joining AB.
He is the founding director of the AB Honors Research Program (since 2012), in which selected undergraduates pursue publishable-quality independent research from sophomore year onward. To date the program has produced 38 peer-reviewed publications co-authored by AB undergraduates — one of the highest such rates of any small liberal-arts college in the country.
Education
- 2003Ph.D., Ecology — Pennsylvania State University. Dissertation: Macroinvertebrate Community Response to Acid Mine Drainage Recovery in Headwater Streams.
- 1999M.S., Biological Sciences — Virginia Tech.
- 1996B.S., Biology (with honors) — Berea College.
Teaching
Dr. Reeves teaches the introductory ecology and zoology core for the Biology major, the senior research methods seminar, and the popular summer Field Biology Intensive.
- BIO 215Ecology & Field MethodsA 4-credit course pairing classroom instruction with a 60-hour field component in the Tygart Valley watershed. Required for all Biology majors.
- BIO 320Vertebrate ZoologyA junior-level course covering the major vertebrate groups, with a focus on the Appalachian fauna. Includes a 30-hour field lab.
- BIO 489Field Biology Intensive (Summer)A four-week summer field course based out of AB's Stream Research Station. Includes a 12-day backpacking research expedition on the Allegheny Trail.
Research, Funded Work & Field Program
Reeves's research program addresses freshwater ecology and biodiversity in Appalachian aquatic and karst ecosystems. He is the principal investigator on an active $640K NSF Karst Research grant (2024–2027), and has been PI or co-PI on more than $3.8M in external funding since joining AB.
The Tygart Stream Project has produced more than 25 peer-reviewed publications, including the field's first long-term dataset on acid-mine-drainage recovery in WV headwater streams. The cave research has documented two species new to science, including the recently named Eurycea reevesi, a stygobitic salamander described by Reeves and his then-undergraduate co-author Mara Chen-Whitford '21.
Selected Publications & Presentations
- 2024Reeves DJ et al. "Long-term Recovery Trajectories in Acid-Mine-Impacted Appalachian Headwaters." Journal of Freshwater Ecology.
- 2023Reeves DJ & Chen-Whitford M. "Eurycea reevesi: A New Stygobitic Plethodontid from the West Virginia Karst." Copeia.
- 2021Co-author, The Appalachian Freshwater Biota Field Guide. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- 2019Reeves DJ. "Twenty Years of the Tygart Stream Project." Bulletin of the WV Academy of Sciences.
- 2025Plenary, Ecological Society of America, "The Undergraduate Research Pipeline in Conservation Biology."
Honors & Service
- 2024NSF Karst Research Award — $640K (PI).
- 2022AB Faculty Award for Distinguished Scholarship.
- 2020WV Academy of Sciences Distinguished Researcher.
- 2018Council on Undergraduate Research National Mentor of the Year.
- 2014AB Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentorship.
A 19-year-old biology major holding an electroshocking probe in a West Virginia stream learns more in one Saturday than a graduate student learns in a month in a lab. We have built our program on that fact.— Dr. Daniel J. Reeves
Beyond the Classroom
Reeves lives in Philippi with his wife Allison (a microbiologist at the Davis Memorial Hospital lab) and their two children. He is a serious caver who has surveyed more than 40 miles of new passage in the Greenbrier and Pendleton county karst, a competitive disc-golf player, and the AB Faculty Senate Parliamentarian.
He keeps a working beehive on top of the Sciences Building and gives his honey away every December to his graduating Biology majors.