Toby Daly-Engel
Dr. Daly-Engel’s research combines genomics with marine ecology to study the evolution of mating strategies in animals that invest heavily in reproduction, especially sharks and rays. She is interested in how reproductive behaviors, particularly from a female fitness perspective, interact with the environment to influence species, populations, and genomes. Her PhD work at the University of Hawaii explored the ecological and genetic effects of female promiscuity in sharks, a subject she expanded on using an insect model as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona. As an Assistant Professor at the University of West Florida (UWF) from 2012-2017, Dr. Daly-Engel worked with collaborators from academia and the National Marine Fisheries Service to monitor marine biodiversity and study the evolution of reproductive strategies in both shallow-coastal and deep-water sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. Her teaching experience includes an NSF GK-12 Fellowship, an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Research and Teaching, and several years developing research-based undergraduate coursework at UWF, where she was honored with the Student Government Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016. Dr. Daly-Engel joined the faculty at Florida Tech in Fall 2017, where she is continuing her research on reproduction and adaptation in sharks and other high-investment organisms.