Ornithologist and Evolutionary Biologist

Department of Biology (Zoology Section)

Faculty of Science
Hacettepe University -Turkey

Research Associate 

Department of Ornithology

Division of Vertebrate Zoology

American Museum of Natural History

 

Utku Perktaş is an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist with practical and theoretical experience ranging from museum-based studies and fieldwork to molecular-based laboratory and analytical techniques. He finished his PhD in 2008 at Hacettepe University. He then conducted postdoctoral studies in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as a Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow. Much of his recent research involves using DNA sequences to reconstruct phylogeographic scenarios of vertebrate species, particularly birds.  He is becoming increasingly interested in evaluating how past responses to climate changes may affect the history of vertebrate species, and how this knowledge can be used for conservation. He is now a faculty member in the Faculty of Science at the Hacettepe University, where he runs his lab (Biogeography Research Lab.), and he is also a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.