Environmental Studies Chair Andy Wilson has taught at Gettysburg College since 2011.
Wilson received his bachelor’s degree from Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom and his Ph.D. in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University.
He began his career working in health economics research at the University of York in England. In 1994, Wilson joined the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), spending a decade blending quantitative research with his passion for birds and conservation. Working for the BTO put Wilson into the fields of the English countryside, where he studied the population ecology of farmland birds across the United Kingdom. His foundational studies investigated declines of shorebirds and grassland birds.
An avid bird researcher, Wilson is his department’s resident “wildlife ecologist.” He is renowned for sharing his passion for birds and conservation with his students through undergraduate research opportunities. Wilson’s research focuses on large-scale bird conservation issues, as well as the impacts of environmental change on bird populations and distributions.
Wilson has been busy directing the third Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project, which began in 2024 and runs through 2029. He has also conducted bird surveys using drones and camera trapping studies of mammals found in the Gettysburg National Military Park.
As a scholar and teacher, Wilson appreciates opportunities to work with his students on research. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles. Several featuring Gettysburg student and alumni co-authors have been published in The Auk, Drones, and Neotropical Biodiversity.
Wilson’s research program at Gettysburg reflects three distinct themes: the ecology and conservation of bird populations at landscape and regional scales, drone-based survey methods for monitoring wildlife, and analyzing large citizen-science datasets that include breeding bird atlases and camera trap networks.
“Engaging students in these research programs is always a joy,” Wilson said. “Combining their inherent love of wildlife with an opportunity to learn about new technologies really provides a spark, and I’m proud that so many follow their dreams to careers in ecology and conservation.”
Photo by Miranda Harple
Posted: 08/17/26