Scott Goetz is a biologist with the USDA National Wildlife Research Center conducting studies on wildlife pathogens. Throughout most of his career, Scott has conducted research on invasive reptile and amphibian species, primarily bioinvasions in Florida and on the Marianas archipelago in the Pacific. His work takes an applied approach – attempting to better understand the natural history and ecology of invasive species in service of improving methods to contain and minimize the impacts of already established non-natives. Scott is also interested in refining early detection and rapid response networks, in particular, applying decision science principles to help determine the best use of limited response resources. Scott’s dissertation research focused on Cuban treefrogs, invasive to Florida at the time and now found in multiple locations throughout the US southeast. This work included investigations of immunological tradeoffs as one possible mechanism to explain the rapid range expansion observed in many bioinvasions. Over the past six years, Scott has worked as a herpetologist/invasive species ecologist for Auburn University, the National Wildlife Research Center, and the US Geological Survey. Recently, most of his time was devoted to studying aspects of invasive brown treesnake ecology on the island of Guam, specifically assessing approaches to suppress their abundance to facilitate possible native species reintroductions.
