Todd Clardy

Dr. Todd Clardy joined the Natural History Museum as Collection Manager of Ichthyology in 2020. Prior to joining the museum, he was a postdoctoral lecturer at Friday Harbor Labs and spent four years as a Research Scientist at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he managed a plankton ecology lab studying zooplankton in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. He holds a Ph.D. from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary, a M.S. from the University of South Alabama, and a B.S. from Troy University. Todd’s research is focused broadly on fish systematics and evolutionary processes and the taxonomy and ecology of the early life history stages of marine fishes. His work includes elements of diversity and distribution of ichthyoplankton, comparative anatomy of fishes, and biomechanics, using techniques ranging from histology to CT scans. Specific projects that he is leading include studying the function and evolution of the mechanosensory lateral line in the marine fish family Stichaeidae and assessing biodiversity and distribution of zooplankton in the Western Arabian Gulf.