Dr. Edward J. Heist
- Ph.D. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA, 1994
Dr. Heist (right in photo) is Assistant Professor of Fisheries in the Zoology program of Southern Illinois University. Dr. Heist is currently working in collaboration with researchers from Mote Marine Laboratory on a National Science Foundation funded study of blacktip shark population genetics and phylogeography. Neonate and young-of-the year blacktip sharks have been collected from continental nursery grounds from the waters of South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Mexico and Belize. Along the Atlantic coast of North America, the blacktip shark is the most important species in commercial longline fisheries and is also an important recreational species.
Dr. Heist studies of fish, and particularly sharks, have included the Gulf of Mexico and his publications concerning such have included: DNA microsatellite loci and genetic structure of red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in the Gulf of Mexico; microsatellite DNA variation in sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) from the Gulf of Mexico and mid-Atlantic Bight; mitochondrial DNA diversity and divergence among sharpnose sharks, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, from the Gulf of Mexico and Mid-Atlantic Bight.