Biography
Eric Hoffman serves as the new Chair of the Department of Biology at UCF. He received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 2003. As a member of the UCF Department of Biology for more than eighteen years he has received multiple Research Incentive Awards (RIAs) as well as Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) awards. Dr. Hoffman has served as both Undergraduate Program Director and Associate Chair of Biology.
The main theme of his research program is to investigate levels of genetic variation present in natural populations and to use this information to address hypotheses about the evolutionary history of the organism of study. Much of his work focuses on genetics of endangered species, such as the Key Deer and the Florida Scrub Jay. His research has produced more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and research grants worth over 1.5 million dollars. He is a previous Fulbright Scholar (2014), and conducted research in Brazil.
Dr. Hoffman is also affiliated with the Genomics and Bioinformatics Faculty Cluster at UCF. He has taught a wide variety of courses in evolution and population genetics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at UCF.
Research
The fundamental aim of evolutionary biology is to understand the diversity of phenotypes found in natural populations. This aim is the motivation behind Dr. Hoffman’s research to determine how genetic and phenotypic variation influence organismal evolution. The main theme of Dr. Hoffman’s research program is to investigate levels of genetic variation present in natural populations and to utilize this information to address hypotheses about the molecular ecology/population genetics of the organism. This theme has manifested into an array of research avenues that share this common goal. Within population genetics, his research falls into three general categories investigating:
- The evolutionary history of an organism
- Conservation genetics
- Evolution of invasive species
Dr. Hoffman is open to working on just about any organism such that the research generally fits into the above categories.
Publications
- Cars, Brooklyn S., Camille Kessler, Eric A. Hoffman, Steeve D Côté, Daniel Koelsch, Aaron BA Shafer. 2024. Island demographics and trait genomics in white-tailed deer. Heredity, in press.
- Stahelin, Gustavo D., Eric Hoffman, Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Monica Reusche, Kate L. Mansfield. 2022. Incorporating distance metrics and temporal trends to refine mixed stock analysis. Scientific Reports, 12:20569.
- Bastos, N. D., Calazans, Savio**, H., Padula, V., Altvater, L., Neves, E. G., Trujillo, A. L., Sharp, W. C., Hoffman, Eric A., Coutinho, R. 2022. Western Atlantic invasion of Sun Coral: Incongruence between morphology and genetic delimitation among morphotypes in the genus Tubastraea. Bulletin of Marine Science, 98:187-210.
- Mary Beth Manjerovic, Hoffman, Eric A., Parkinson, Christopher, and Waterman, Jane. 2022. Intraspecific variation in male mating strategies in an African ground squirrel (Xerus inauris). Ecology and Evolution, 12:e9208.
- Savio Calazans**, C. Lourenco, K. Nicastro, Claudio Tagliaro, G. Zardi, Carlos E. L. Ferreira, Flavio C. Fernandez, Edson P. Silva, and Eric A. Hoffman. 2021. Unlocking the history of a trans-Atlantic invader: Did the human slave trade impact Brown mussel dispersal? Journal of Biogeography, 48:2671-2681.
- Sergio A. Balaguera-Reina, John Konvalina**, Ryan S. Mohammed, Brandon Gross, Ryan Vazquez, Juan Felipe Moncada, Eric A. Hoffman, Llewellyn D. Densmore III. 2021. From the river to the ocean: mitochondrial DNA analyses provide evidence of spectacled caimans (Caiman crocodilus Linnaeus 1758) mainland-insular passive dispersal. In press, Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society, 134:486-497.
- Daniel R. Volk**, John Konvalina**, Sergio Floeter, Carlos E. L. Ferreira, and Eric A. Hoffman. 2021. Going against the flow: barriers of gene flow impact patterns of connectivity in low dispersal coral reef gobies throughout the western Atlantic. Journal of Biogeography, 48:427-439.
- Trujillo, Alexa L., Eric A. Hoffman, C. Guilherme Becker, and Anna E. Savage. 2021. Spatiotemporal adaptive evolution of immune genes in a frog-fungus disease system. Heredity, 126:640-655.
- Lauren Caspers**, Gina M. Ferrie**, and Eric A. Hoffman. 2020. Hybridization within a North American population of Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus). Zoo Biology, 39:129-140.
