B.Sc. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1995. Cornell University.
M.Sc. in Zoology, 1998. North Carolina State University.

Awards:

2003-2005. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Herpetological Biodiversity and Biogeography in the Mountains of the Lower Mekong Ecoregion (with Harold Voris and Robert Inger).

2003. University of Illinois at Chicago, Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research.

2002-2003. Provost’s Award for Graduate Research, University of Illinois at Chicago. Amphibian Phylogeography of Indochina: Assessment of Genetic Variation.

2002. Graduate Student Research Achievement Award, University of Illinois at Chicago.

2001-2002. William A. and Stella Rowley and the Lester Armour Graduate Fellowship Fund, Field Museum. Phylogeography of amphibians of Indochina.

1998-2000. National Geographic Society. Biogeography of amphibians and reptiles of Laos (with Harold Heatwole).

1998. Turtle Recovery Program, Wildlife Conservation Society.

Research Interests:

Systematics, biogeography, and conservation of Southeast Asian amphibians and reptiles.

Current Research:

I am investigating genetic variation among populations of several species of frogs in Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam). Many Indochinese frog species require lotic streams for thriving and reproducing, while others require lentic water bodies to persist. I hypothesize that lowland areas which lack lotic streams present gene-flow barriers to the former group, and steep areas which lack ponds and lentic water bodies present gene-flow barriers to the latter group. I will use these genetic studies to identify evolutionarily independent units in these species and to estimate the relative roles of vicariance and dispersal in shaping their contemporary distributions. By comparing gene-tree phylogenies among the codistributed frog species, I expect to find shared responses to historical biogeographic factors in the landscape of Indochina.

Additionally, these genetic studies may have systematic implications. Some of these frog species exhibit considerable geographic variation in morphology, and may actually consist of multiple species. The results of these genetic studies, combined with morphological data, may help to split these complexes into more realistically defined species.

Publications:

Stuart, B. L. and T. Chan-ard (in press). Two new Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae) from Laos and Thailand. Copeia.
 
Stuart, B. L., N. L. Orlov, and T. Chan-ard (in press). A new cascade frog (Amphibia: Ranidae) from Laos and Vietnam. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.
 
Parham, J. F., B. L. Stuart, R. Bour, and U. Fritz (in press). The evolutionary distinctiveness of the extinct Yunnan box turtle (Cuora yunnanensis) revealed by DNA from an old museum specimen. Biology Letters.
 
Platt, S. G., A. Resetar, and B. L. Stuart. (in press). Maximum clutch size of the American alligator. Florida Field Naturalist.
 
Kearney, M. and B. L. Stuart (2004). Repeated evolution of limblessness and digging heads in worm lizards revealed by DNA from old bones. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271: 1677-1683.
 
Kalyabina-Hauf, S., N. B. Ananjeva, U. Joger, P. Lenk, R. W. Murphy, B. L. Stuart, N. L. Orlov, C. T. Ho, and M. Wink. (2004). Molecular phylogeny of the genus Acanthosaura (Agamidae). Current Herpetology 23(1): 7-16.
 
Stuart, B. L. and J. F. Parham. 2004. Molecular phylogeny of the critically endangered Indochinese box turtle (Cuora galbinifrons). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31: 164-177.
 
Stuart, B. L. and H. F. Heatwole. 2004. A new Philautus (Amphibia: Rhacophoridae) from northern Laos. Asiatic Herpetological Research 10: 17-21.
 
Stuart, B. L. and S. G. Platt. 2004. Recent records of turtles and tortoises from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Asiatic Herpetological Research 10: 129-150.
 
Malhotra, A., R. S. Thorpe, and B. L. Stuart. 2004. A morphometric analysis of Trimeresurus vogeli (David, Vidal and Pauwels, 2001), with new data on diagnostic characteristics, distribution, and natural history. Herpetological Journal 14: 65-77. 
 
Stuart, B. L. 2004. The harvest and trade of reptiles at U Minh Thuong National Park, southern Viet Nam. TRAFFIC Bulletin 20(1): 25-34.
 
Lücking, R., B. L. Stuart, and H. T. Lumbsch. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships of Gomphillaceae and Asterothyriaceae: evidence from a combined Bayesian analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequences. Mycologia 96(2): 283-294.
 
Platt, S. G., Heng Sovannara, Long Kheng, B. L. Stuart, and J. Walston. 2003. Crocodylus siamensis along the Sre Ambel River, southern Cambodia: habitat, nesting, and conservation. Herpetological Natural History 9(2): 165-169.
 
Stuart, B. L. and J. Thorbjarnarson. 2003. Biological prioritization of Asian countries for turtle conservation. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 4(3): 642-647.
 
Platt, S. G., B. L. Stuart, Heng Sovannara, Long Kheng, Kalyar, and Heng Kimchay. 2003. Rediscovery of the critically endangered river terrapin, Batagur baska, in Cambodia, with notes on occurrence, reproduction, and conservation status. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 4(3): 691-695.
 
Hermann, H.-W., T. Ziegler, B. L. Stuart, and N. L. Orlov. 2002. New findings on the distribution, morphology, and natural history of Triceratolepidophis sieversorum (Serpentes: Viperidae). Herpetological Natural History 9(1): 89-94.
 
Stuart, B. L. and T. J. Papenfuss. 2002. A new salamander of the genus Paramesotriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from Laos. Journal of Herpetology 36(2): 145-148 + color plate.
 
Murphy, J. C., H. K. Voris, B. L. Stuart, and S. G. Platt. 2002. Female reproduction in the Rainbow Water Snake, Enhydris enhydris (Serpentes, Colubridae, Homalopsinae). The Natural History Journal of Chulalongkorn University 1(2): 31-37.
 
Xianlin, M., Zhihua, Z, and B. L. Stuart. 2002. Recent actions by the People’s Republic of China to better control international trade of turtles. Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter 5: 15-16.
 
Stuart, B. L., D. An, and P. P. van Dijk. 2002. A record of the leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys coriacea from Cambodia. Marine Turtle Newsletter. 96: 22 [Available www.seaturtle.org/mtn/archives/ mtn96/mtn96p22.shtml].
 
Stuart, B. L., B. Hayes, Bui Huu Manh, and S. G. Platt. 2002. Status of crocodiles in the U Minh Thuong Nature Reserve, southern Vietnam. Pacific Conservation Biology 8(1): 62-65.
 
Stuart, B. L., P. P. van Dijk, D. B. Hendrie. 2001. Photographic Guide to the Turtles of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Design Group. Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. 84 pages. [In four bilingual versions: English/Thai, English/Lao, English/Vietnamese, English/Khmer].
 
Ananjeva, N. B. and B. L. Stuart. 2001. The agamid lizard Ptyctolaemus phuwuanensis Manthey and Nabhitabhata, 1991 from Thailand and Laos represents a new genus. Russian Journal of Herpetology 8(3): 165-170.
 
Chan-ard, T., B. L. Stuart, and W. Wüster 2000. First record of Indochinese Spitting Cobra Naja siamensis Laurenti (Serpentes: Elapidae) from Laos, with comments on the genus in the country. 2000. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 48: 149-152.
 
Stuart, B. L. and S. G. Platt. 2000. Status of Siamese Crocodile Crocodylus siamensis in Laos. pp. 523-530. In: Crocodiles. Proceedings of the 15th Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, U.K. xvii + 541 pages.
 
Stuart, B. L., J. Smith, K. Davey, Prom Din, and S. G. Platt. 2000. Homalopsine watersnakes: The harvest and trade from Tonle Sap, Cambodia. TRAFFIC Bulletin 18(3): 115-124.
 
van Dijk, P. P., B. L. Stuart, and A. G. J. Rhodin (editors). 2000. Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Monographs 2. Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg. 164 pages.
 
Stuart, B. L. and R. J. Timmins. 2000. Conservation status and trade of turtles in Laos. pp. 58-62. In Van Dijk, P. P., B. L. Stuart, and A. G. J. Rhodin (editors). Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Monographs 2. Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg. 164 pages.
 
Stuart, B. L., R. J. Timmins, D. B. Hendrie, S. Lieng, S. Chun, P. Hout, K. Heng, T. S. Touch, H. L. Prak, T. Chul, J. Compton, and R. Holloway. Turtle trade in Indochina: regional summary (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). pp. 74-76. In Van Dijk, P. P., B. L. Stuart, and A. G. J. Rhodin (editors). 2000. Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Monographs 2. Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg. 164 pages.
 
IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group and Asian Turtle Trade Working Group (B. L. Stuart with 23 co-authors). 2000. Recommended changes to 1996 IUCN Red List status of Asian turtle species. pp. 156-164. In Van Dijk, P. P., B. L. Stuart, and A. G. J. Rhodin (editors). Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Monographs 2. Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg. 164 pages. These evaluations were fully adopted by the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
 
Stuart, B. L. and P. Davidson. 1999. Use of bomb craters by frogs in Laos. Herpetological Review 30(2): 72-73.
 
Stuart, B., W. J. Croom Jr., and H. Heatwole. 1998. Hypersensitivity of some lizards to pilocarpine.  Herpetological Review 29 (4): 223-224.
 
Laerm, J., P. G. Livingston, C. C. Spencer, and B. L. Stuart. 1997. Condylura cristata (Insectivora: Talpidae) in the Blue Ridge Province of Western South Carolina. Brimleyana 24: 46-49. 
 
Livingston, P. G., C. C. Spencer, and B. L. Stuart. 1995. Desmognathus aeneus-South Carolina state record. Herpetological Review 26(4): 207.