In June 2023, Hopi E. Hoekstra was named the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In spring 2024, she was appointed the C.Y. Chan Professor of Arts and Sciences, recognizing her outstanding contributions to teaching and research in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is currently on leave from her position as Curator of Mammals in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where she had also been the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Departments of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology and Molecular & Cellular Biology.
A member of the Harvard faculty since 2007, her research focuses on evolutionary genetics, with emphasis on the traits that enable mammals to adapt to changing natural environments. Her work integrates laboratory techniques with experiments in the field, and bridges such areas as ecology, evolution, behavior, genetics and genomics, and neurobiology.
A Howard Hughes Medical Institution Investigator from 2013 until her appointment as dean, she is also a member of the Broad Institute. Her research has been recognized with the National Academy of Sciences’ Lounsbery Award and the American Society of Mammalogists’ Merriam Award, among other honors. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society.