My laboratory pioneered the development and application of tools to measure DNA, hormones, and toxicants in wildlife scat, which is the most accessible animal product in nature.  We simultaneously trained detection dogs to locate scat samples over large remote areas. These combined tools have provided wildlife managers a physiological window into how multiple concurrent environmental pressures impact wildlife. DNA is used to determine the species, sex and individual identities of wildlife as well as their diets.  Hormones from these same samples measure stress, nutritional status, reproductive health and toxicant exposure.  The combined tools are now being used by hundreds of investigators worldwide. 

On the forensic side, my lab identified the three largest poaching hotspots in Africa by developing methods to extract DNA from tusks recovered from large ivory seizures and comparing that to a comprehensive DNA map of elephant populations we assembled from dung collected across Africa. We also developed tools to link the major Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) driving Africa’s ivory trade to multiple shipments and to each other by genetically matching tusks from the same elephant or close family members found across shipments. We expanded this approach in a collaboration with Microsoft AI for Good, using AI to identify unique signatures handwritten on thousands of tusks by traffickers moving ivory up the supply chain and matching these signatures to tusks in separate shipments.  Combining the DNA and handwriting methods enabled us to show that the major TCOs operating in East and West Africa have begun expanding operations into southern Africa, where over half of Africa’s elephants remain. We incorporate these tools into capacity building programs across Africa to empower nationals from multiple countries with state-of-the-art tools to address their conservation and management challenges.

Dr. Wasser acquired his B.Sc in Zoology at Michigan State University, his M.Sc in Zoology at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his Ph.D. in Animal Behavior at the University of Washington. He was awarded the first H.F. Guggenheim Career Development Award for his studies of reproductive impacts of aggression in female mammals. He then received the first Research Scientist Development Award from the Smithsonian Institution for his work on noninvasive hormone methods. Wasser was awarded the endowed chair in Conservation Biology by the University of Washington Board of Reagents. He is currently Research Professor in the UW Department of Biology and Director of their Center for Conservation Biology after being awarded the endowed chair in Conservation Biology by the University of Washington Board of Reagents.