Richard Stevens, an internationally recognized quantitative ecologist and the Caesar Kleberg Endowed Professor of Wildlife Conservation at Texas Tech’s Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, has been appointed chair of the Department of Natural Resources Management, university officials announced. He assumed the position on Sept. 1.
“I am thrilled to assume this more permanent role of leading NRM to new heights and in particular the Pursuit of Pime,” Stevens said.
A longtime member of the Texas Tech faculty, Stevens also serves as professor of natural resources management and interim director and curator of mammals for the university’s Natural Science Research Laboratory. He had been serving as interim chair of the Department of Natural Resources Management since the fall of 2024.
Over his career, Stevens has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and secured $4.4 million in competitive research funding from federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
At Texas Tech, Stevens leads an active research program examining the community ecology of bats and rodents in Paraguay, California and Texas. His work explores how species interactions, dispersal, seasonality and competition influence community structure - with broader implications for global biodiversity conservation.
Before joining Texas Tech in 2014 as an associate professor, Stevens held faculty appointments at Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
His honors include the Bernie E. Rushing Jr. Faculty Outstanding Researcher Award (2018), Davis College Research Award (2022), and the Texas Tech Office of the Provost’s Integrated Scholar designation (2023). A past president of the Texas Society of Mammalogists, he has served on the board of the American Society of Mammalogists and as an associate editor of the Journal of Mammalogy. He also contributes to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Expert Panel for Mammals of Paraguay.
A Texas Tech alumnus, Stevens earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in biology from the university. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America, the North American Society for Bat Research, and the Southwestern Association of Naturalists.
CONTACT: Clint Krehbiel, Dean, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or Clint.Krehbiel@ttu.edu
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