Dr. Shalene Jha

Biography

Shalene Jha is the Director of Research at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, part of the Department of Integrative Biology in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research broadly encompasses landscape genetics, population ecology, conservation biology, and foraging ecology. Specifically, she examines how global land use change influences gene flow, foraging patterns, and population viability in plants and animals. Jha investigates various topics related to human-altered landscapes across regions such as California, Texas, Panama, and Mexico. A significant focus of her studies is on the interactions between pollinators, predominantly bees, and plants within these landscapes. Her work has substantial implications for understanding and supporting declining populations of native pollinators.

Research Interests