Diane J. Blackwood

Diane J. Blackwood, Ph.D., works at the intersection of software development, scientific research, digital evolution education, acoustics, and field biology. Her career includes Avida-ED, ecological and fisheries data systems, marine mammal acoustics, biomedical engineering, teaching, and aerospace research software.

Avida-ED and digital evolution education

Diane contributed to the browser-based Avida-ED project, including Avida-ED 4.0: Ecology. Her broader experience makes that work unusually cross-disciplinary: software engineering, database design, biological research, classroom teaching, and scientific visualization all appear in her earlier CV materials.

Planned additions include project links, selected presentation materials, and software notes from the Avida-ED archive.

Education

Ph.D.: Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, 2003. Dissertation on vocal response times to acoustic stimuli in white whales and bottlenose dolphins.
M.S.: Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 1991. Thesis on motion and EMG during mastication in subcondylar fracture patients.
B.S.: Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, 1986.
B.S.: Zoology, University of Florida, 1983.

Software and data systems

Diane's technical work includes C#, ASP.NET MVC/Razor, WPF, SQL Server, Access, Python, C, FORTRAN, Delphi/Object Pascal, Matlab, Perl, HTML, CSS, PHP, and earlier assembly and scientific computing environments. Her CV materials emphasize algorithm design, signal processing, statistical analysis, database design, and custom applications for research data workflows.

At the Fish & Wildlife Research Institute she maintained and developed research databases and .NET applications, supported harmful algal bloom data workflows, and built or maintained public-facing environmental information systems, including an EcoSpecies site for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Research background

Her research record spans marine mammal hearing and biosonar, chronic noise effects on sage-grouse, ecological data management, natural history datasets, biomedical signal analysis, and aerospace human-factors software. Earlier roles included postdoctoral work at UC Davis, staff research at UC Berkeley, acoustic and biosonar support in San Diego, applied research at the University of Texas, biomedical engineering research in Dallas, and engineering work at General Dynamics.

Teaching and mentoring

Diane taught physics at Lansing Community College and programming, artificial neural networks, marine ecology, and biostatistics in earlier adjunct and graduate teaching roles. Her materials also document K-12 science outreach, science fair and Science Olympiad service, and mentoring of undergraduate research projects in animal behavior and marine biology.

Selected publications and presentations

Blickley, J. L., Blackwood, D. J., and Patricelli, G. L. 2012. Experimental evidence for the effects of chronic anthropogenic noise on abundance of Greater Sage-Grouse at leks. Conservation Biology.
Ridgway, S. H., Elsberry, W. R., Blackwood, D. J., and coauthors. 2012. Vocal reporting of echolocation targets: dolphins often report before click trains end. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Cranford, T. W., Elsberry, W. R., Van Bonn, W. G., Blackwood, D. J., and coauthors. 2011. Observation and analysis of sonar signal generation in the bottlenose dolphin. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.
Blackwood, D. J., Ridgway, S. H., and Evans, W. E. 2002. A window on perception: response times of odontocete cetaceans in audiometric tests. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Tate, G. S., Throckmorton, G. S., Ellis, E. III, Sinn, D. P., and Blackwood, D. J. 1994. Estimated masticatory forces in patients prior to orthognathic surgery. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Source note

This page was expanded from CV and resume material located in the family document archive. Private contact details, addresses, application letters, and full resume files are intentionally not published here while the public archive is being curated.