Dr. James (Jim) S. Coleman is vice provost for research and a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University.

The most recent focus of Coleman's research interests has been the ecological effects of environmental change, but his role as vice provost will keep him too busy to run a lab here. However, he looks forward to collaborating with faculty across campus and being an active member of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Prior to his arrival at Rice Dr. Coleman was the vice chancellor for research and professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) where he oversaw all aspects of the research enterprise at MU, whose annual research and development expenditures totaled approximately $220 million in fiscal year 2006. MU is one of the few U.S. universities with its own schools or colleges of medicine, veterinary medicine, agriculture, engineering, law and journalism. MU's federal research funding increased 189 percent between 1995 and 2005 – the second fastest growth rate in the Association of American Universities.

Dr. Coleman was vice president for research and business development at Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI) — an environmental science research institute with annual research expenditures of approximately $40 million and campuses in both Reno and Las Vegas.  He also served as the director of Nevada's NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Project, as a research professor in DRI's Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, and a graduate faculty member in the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. While at DRI, he was principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over $25 million in research and research infrastructure improvement grants. During his tenure as vice president, Dr. Coleman oversaw a greater than 50 percent increase in the DRI's research growth, and in 1999 he was recognized as an outstanding administrator by the University and Community College System of the Nevada Board of Regents.

From 1990 to 1997, Dr. Coleman served as both an assistant professor and an associate professor of biology at Syracuse University. During the 1995-1996 academic year, he also served as a program officer at theNational Science Foundation (NSF) where he managed a $10 million annual budget for programs in ecological and evolutionary physiology, dissertation improvement grants, and co-managed NSF's participation in the NSF/DOE/NASA/USDA program in terrestrial ecology and global change. While a faculty member at Syracuse University, Dr. Coleman received a NSF Young Investigator Award, as well as several other research grants from the National Science Foundation. This NSF funding helped him to build a research program in plant physiological ecology. The British journal The Scientist reported in 1996 that a paper authored by Dr. Coleman in 1993 (Oecologia.93: 195-200) was the number six most cited paper in the world in the field of global change biology and his research papers have been cited approximately 2,100 times.

Dr. Coleman was the youngest faculty member to receive Syracuse University's William Wasserstrom Prize, an honor recognizing his outstanding performance in educating graduate students. In addition to his work with graduate students, Dr. Coleman developed a professional passion for undergraduate teaching and involving undergraduates in "hands-on" research experiences. This, in turn, led to his playing a significant role in the development of an interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in environmental science. 

Some of Dr. Coleman's other key professional activities include his service as a member of the board of the Missouri Innovation Center; an ex-officio board member of Regional Economic Development, Inc. (REDI); a member of the board of the Association of Ecosystem Research Centers (AERC); a member of the Research Alliance of Missouri; a member of the board of the Nevada Technology Council (1999- 2003); a board member of the Coalition of EPSCoR States (2000-2003); as president of the Physiological Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America (1999- 2001); as a member of the governing council of the Ecological Society of America (1999-2001); as an associate editor and editorial board member for the journals Ecology and Ecological Monographs (1997-2000); as an associate editor for The International Journal of Plant Sciences (1998-present); as the principal or co-principal investigator on eight grants from the National Science Foundation over the last eight years; as a member of five research advisory panels to the National Science Foundation; and as a reviewer for 15 different scientific journals in the fields of plant physiology, ecology and evolutionary biology.

Dr. Coleman has a bachelor of science degree (Forestry) from the University of Maine and a master of science, a master of philosophy and doctorate in physiological ecology from Yale University. He also held positions as a postdoctoral researcher in biology at Stanford University (1987-1988) and at Harvard University (1988-1990). Dr. Coleman has over 75 peer reviewed publications focused on the physiological and ecological responses of plants to natural and human-caused disturbances, as well as the evolutionary ecology of the interactions of plants with insects and diseases. His research program has concentrated on the integration of cellular, organismal, community and ecosystem approaches to ecological studies.  His recent research uses this integrated approach to predict and understand how ecosystems may respond to global environmental change.

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REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Global Change Biology

• Arnone, J.A. III, P.S.J. Verburg, D.W. Johnson, J.D. Larsen, R.L. Jasoni, A.J. Lucchesi, C.M. Batts, C. von Nagy, W.G. Coulombe, D.E. Schorran, P.E. Buck, B.H. Braswell, J.S. Coleman, R.A. Sherry, L.L. Wallace, Y. Luo and D.S. Schimel. 200X.  Future CO2 Uptake Suppressed by Synchronous and Lagged Ecosystem Responses to Extreme Year. Nature (in review)
• Nowak, R.S., S.F. Zitzer, D. Babcock, V. Smith-Longozo, T.N. Charlet, J.S. Coleman, J.R. Seemann and S.D. Smith. 2004.  Elevated atmospheric CO2 does not conserve soil moisture in the Mojave Desert. Ecology 85: 93-99.
• Ericksen, J.A., M.S. Gustin, D.S. Schorran, D.W. Johnson, S.E. Lindberg and J.S. Coleman. 2003.  Accumulation of atmospheric mercury by forest foliage. Atmospheric Environment 37: 1613-1622.
• Verburg, P.S.J., J.A. Arnone III, D. Obrist, D.W. Johnson, D. Lerourx-Swarthout, D.E. Schorran, Y. Luo, R.D. Evans, and J.S. Coleman. 2004. Net ecosystem carbon exchange in two experimental grassland ecosystems.  Global Change Biology 10: 498-508.
• Smith, S.D.,  T.E. Huxman, S. F. Zitzer, T.N. Charlet, D.C. Housman, J. S. Coleman, L. K. Fenstermaker, J.R. Seemann, and R.S. Nowak.  2000 Elevated CO2 increases productivity and invasive species success in an arid ecosystem.  Nature 408: 79-82.
• Cheng, W., D. Sims, Y. Luo, D. Johnson, T. Ball, and J.S. Coleman.  2000. Demonstration of complete carbon budgeting in plant-soil mesocosms under elevated CO2: Locally missing carbon?  Global Change Biology 6: 99-110.

Plant Ontogeny and Response to Environmental Perturbation

• Bernacchi, C.J., J.N. Thompson, J.S. Coleman, K.D.M. McConnaughay. 2007. Allometric Analysis Reveals Relatively Little Variation in Nitrogen vs. Biomass Accrual in Four Plant Species Exposed to Varying Light, Nutrients, Water, and CO2.  Plant, Cell and Environment 30: 1216:1222.
• McConnaughay, K.D.M. and J.S. Coleman. 1999.  Biomass allocation in plants: ontogeny or optimality? A test along three resource gradients. Ecology 80: 2581-2593.
• Coleman, J.S., K.D. M. McConnaughay and D.D. Ackerly. 1994.  Interpreting phenotypic variation in plants.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 187-191.

Plant Ontogeny and Plant-Herbivore Interactions

• Gould, G.G., C.G. Jones, P. Rifleman, A. Perez, and J.S. Coleman. 2007. Variation in Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr.) phloem sap content and toughness due to leaf development may affect feeding site Selection behavior of the aphid, Chaitophorous populicola Thomas (Homoptera: Aphididae). Environmental Entomology 35: 1212:1225.
• Wait, D.A., J.S. Coleman and C.G. Jones.  2002.  Chrysomela scripta, Plagiodera versicolora (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidia), and Trichoplusia ni (Lepodoptera: Noctuidae) track specific leaf developmental stages.  Environmental Entomology 31: 836-843.
• Wait, D.A., C.G. Jones, J.S. Coleman and M. Schaedle.  1998.  Insect responses to fertilization of host plants may be regulated by changes in leaf development. Oikos: 82: 502-514.
• Coleman, J.S. and A.S. Leonard.  1995. Why it matters where on a leaf a folivore feeds.  Oecologia 101: 324-328.
• Jones, C.G., R.F. Hopper, J.S. Coleman, and V.A. Krischik.  1993.  Plant vasculature controls the distribution of systemically induced defense against a herbivore.  Oecologia 93: 452-456.

Function and Ecological Significance of  Plant Heat Shock Proteins

• Hamilton, E.W. III and J.S. Coleman.  2001. Heat-shock proteins are induced in unstressed leaves of Nicotiana attenuata when distant leaves are stressed.  American Journal of Botany 88: 950-955.
• Heckathorn, S.A., C.A. Downs, T.D. Sharkey and J.S. Coleman.  1998. A small chloroplast heat-shock protein protects photosystem II during heat stress. Plant Physiology 116: 439-444.
• Downs, C., S.A. Heckathorn, J.S. Coleman and J. Bryan. 1998.   The methionine-rich low-molecular-weight chloroplast heat shock protein: evolutionary conservation and accumulation in relation to thermotolerance.  American Journal of Botany 85: 175-183.
• Heckathorn, S.A., G.J. Polgreen, J.S. Coleman and R.L. Hallberg.  1996.  Nitrogen availability alters the accumulation of stress-induced proteins in plants. Oecologia 105: 413-418.
• Coleman, J.S., S.A. Heckathorn and R.L. Hallberg. 1995.  Heat shock proteins and thermotolerance:  Linking ecological and molecular perspectives.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 10: 305-306.

Environmental Influences on Plant-Herbivore Interactions

• Heckathorn, S.A., S.J. McNaughton and J.S. Coleman. 1998. C4 photosynthesis and herbivory.  In: R. Sage and R. Monson (eds).  The biology of C4 photosynthesis. Academic Press. San Diego.  pages 285-312.
• Hartvigsen, G., D.A. Wait, and J.S. Coleman.  1995.  Tri-trophic interactions as influenced by resource availability: Predator effects on plant performance depend on resource level.  Oikos 74: 463-468.
• Coleman, J.S., C.G. Jones, and V.A. Krischik.  1992.  Phytocentric and exploiter perspectives of phytopathology.  Advances in Plant Pathology 8: 149-195.
• Coleman, J.S. and C.G. Jones.  1991.  A phytocentric perspective of phytochemical induction by herbivores.  In: D. Tallamy and M. Raupp (eds.).  Phytochemical Induction by Herbivores. J. Wiley and Sons. pp. 3-45.
• Jones, C.G. and J.S. Coleman.  1991.  Plant stress and insect herbivory: Toward an integrated perspective. In: H.A. Mooney, W.E. Winner and E.J. Pell (eds.) Integrated Responses of Plants to Environmental Stress. Academic Press, NY. pp. 249-282.