Travis Longcore, Ph.D. GISP
Adjunct Professor; Co-Chair, Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) Program
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
300 La Kretz Hall
619 Charles E. Young Drive East
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310-247-9719
longcore@ucla.edu
Travis Longcore is an Adjunct Professor in the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Co-Chair, Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) Program. He is an Associate Editor of PLoS ONE and Urban Ecosystems and is a Certified Senior Ecologist (Ecological Society of America) and a GIS Professional (GISP). He also serves as the Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group.
Dr. Longcore conducts research on environmental health, focusing on the conservation of biodiversity in cities and beyond and the application of spatial tools to human health exposures. His research includes investigation of the effects of artificial night lighting on wildlife and human health; mapping, modeling, and management of species and habitats; reconstruction of historical landscapes to better understand current and future land management options; and use of big spatial data to assess impacts and evaluate mitigations for exposure to extreme heat. His landmark article “Ecological Light Pollution” (Longcore and Rich 2004) and 2006 co-edited book Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting (Island Press) have come to define a new and rapidly growing research area in ecology.
Dr. Longcore’s research has been published in journals as diverse as American Journal of Epidemiology, Exotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Insect Conservation and Diversity, EcoHealth, Conservation Genetics, Cancer Epidemiology, Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Cities, Wetlands, Restoration Ecology, and Urban Geography. He has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Transportation, Department of the Navy, John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, NOAA Sea Grant, National Park Service, Department of Defense, and NASA.
As an educator, Dr. Longcore developed the senior practicum in Environmental Science at UCLA, leading that program from 2008 to 2014, during which time he managed its growth and scope to include competitively selected off-campus clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits for which teams of undergraduates pursued original research projects. He also developed the practicum program for the first-ever undergraduate degree in geodesign, at the University of Southern California, where he was cross-appointed in Spatial Sciences, Landscape Architecture, and Biological Sciences from 2015 to 2019. He has published research papers with UCLA undergraduate co-authors arising from practicum projects on wildlife movement in the Santa Monica Mountains, tuning the color of light bulbs to reduce insect attraction, and the impacts of anticoagulant rodenticides in the southern California landscape.
Dr. Longcore attended the University of Delaware with the prestigious Eugene DuPont Memorial Scholarship, earning the first Honors B.A. degree awarded in Geography, and supplemented by studies in national security at the Arizona Honors Academy and in international economic development at the University of Oslo’s acclaimed International Summer School. He won the Taylor Award for the outstanding senior man, was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee from the state, and won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, with which he obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA.
Among his accomplishments in the nonprofit, educational, and consulting sectors, Dr. Longcore co-developed science-based habitat restoration program and native plant nursery for coastal dune habitats and transferred operation to nonprofit training at-risk youth and young adults and managed a captive breeding program for endangered California butterflies, which he continues to oversee.
Dr. Longcore’s research has been covered in National Geographic, Audubon, New York Times, Washington Post, Science, Nature, Wall Street Journal, Life, and Discover.
In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Longcore is an invited member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Delta Phi, and has been commended by the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation (as The Urban Wildlands Group), the California Department of Transportation Excellence in Transportation Award (Environment), and the International Dark-Sky Association.
Dr. Longcore serves the community as President of the Los Angeles Audubon Society and President of the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, which represents 27,000 residents near UCLA as one of the 99 official neighborhood councils organized under the charter of the City of Los Angeles.
