2007 Virginia OFA Recipient

Dr. Daniel Cristol is the Marjorie S. Curtis Distinguished Associate Professor of Biology at the College of William and Mary, where he has taught for 10 years. Shortly after his arrival, the National Science Foundation awarded Dr. Cristol one of its coveted Faculty Early Career Development awards in recognition of his exceptional potential for a balanced research and teaching career. He has realized that promise with several teaching awards, 35 papers in respected journals, over $1 million in grants, and a strong record of service to his community.

Dr. Cristol’s academic pursuits are motivated by his life-long fascination with birds. He studies their behavior and ecology, and is best known for his work on migration and cognition. Most recently he has focused on research with implications for conservation, such as ongoing studies of mercury pollution in the Shenandoah River watershed.

Dr. Cristol has published papers with over 20 undergraduate co-authors in the decade since his arrival at William and Mary. His $1.3 million in grant funding is particularly notable because ecology research is funded less generously than molecular biology. His teaching career has been demanding, with large enrollments, diverse subject matter, and numerous lab sections, yet his student evaluations have been exceptional and his courses very popular. Cristol’s research lab has attracted 5-10 independent research students each semester, including winners of Rhodes, NSF predoctoral, and Goldwater scholarships. His first undergraduate research student has already completed her Ph.D. and been hired as an assistant professor of biology at Virginia Tech.

The bursting energy and infectious enthusiasm that have made Dr. Cristol successful in the classroom have also spilled over into service. He is chair of the demanding Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee that oversees all research with vertebrate animals at William and Mary. In addition, he has just taken the helm of the Murray Scholars Program, the College’s most elite scholarship program. He visits local elementary schools monthly to talk about birds and writes a monthly column, on birds of course, for The Virginia Gazette.

An ornithology colleague from Europe noted about Cristol that “few field-oriented biologists in this particular phase of their careers are as productive and creative as he is. I also found the productivity of his student’s projects quite outstanding.” One of those outstanding undergraduate students recently described Dr. Cristol’s impact on her in an essay for a scholarship application. She wrote “As I know firsthand from my current research in ornithology, the influence of even one incredible professor can change the course of one’s life and shift the future into focus. This perspective has inspired me to pursue my dreams with relentless perseverance in the hope of impacting even one person as deeply as I have been affected.” Dr. Cristol holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Nomination Package