Donald McCrimmon, Jr. ,Ph.D.

Donald A. McCrimmon, Jr. earned a Ph.D. in zoology from North Carolina State University. From 1975 – 1984, he directed the Cooperative Research Program at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, studying bird populations and reproduction throughout North America. Following professional opportunities that then led him and his family to live in California, Maine and Michigan, he relocated back to central New York in 2003. In 2013, after 10 years of service, he retired as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Cazenovia College.

McCrimmon’s research interests have centered on the quantitative assessment of bird populations, especially herons and egrets, as well as some birds of prey and songbirds. He has also published species accounts and life histories of several wading birds in the Second Atlas of the Breeding Birds of New York State as well as the innovative and highly regarded online Birds of North America. He is an Elected Member of the American Ornithologist’s Union, a Past-President of the Waterbird Society, and for four-years was Editor-in-Chief of the international journal, Waterbirds.

As McDevitt Research Associate, McCrimmon investigates changes in bird migration patterns as they may have been influenced by climate change. He conducts this research in partnership with Le Moyne Professors George Coyne (Endowed McDevitt Chair in Physics) and Lawrence Tanner (Associate McDevitt Chair in Biology) and under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Environmental Change. Le Moyne undergraduates work with him to assess apparent differences in species’ abilities to adjust arrival dates to changing climatic conditions. As adjunct faculty, McCrimmon also teaches ESS 121, Global Resources; ESS 128, Global Ecosystems: Costa Rica; ESS 129, Global Ecosystems: North America; and PHO 368, Time, The Universe and You (in partnership with Prof. William Day), and other courses. He also advises sophomore-level students in biology.