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Liza Comita is the Davis-Denkmann Professor of Tropical Forest Ecology at Yale School of the Environment. She earned her BA in Biology and MA in Conservation Biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, followed by a PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia in 2006. Comita joined Yale's faculty in July 2014 and previously served as an assistant professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University from 2011 to 2014. She has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Minnesota, Earth Institute at Columbia University, and National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Her research focuses on the ecological mechanisms driving patterns of diversity, dynamics, and species distributions in both pristine and human-altered tropical forests, combining extensive field studies with cutting-edge statistical techniques to generate new insights into the processes that drive tropical forest regeneration and structure diverse ecological communities. She is currently accepting doctoral students and will be on leave in the Spring 2026 semester.
Yale School of the Environment • New Haven, CT
Professor specializing in tropical forest ecology.
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University • Columbus, OH
Conducted research and taught courses in plant biology and ecology.
University of Minnesota • Minneapolis, MN
Conducted research on tropical forests.
Earth Institute, Columbia University • New York, NY
Focused on ecological analysis and synthesis.
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis • Santa Barbara, CA
Engaged in research analyzing ecological data.
Administered via the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). GRE General is optional for PhD.