Samantha cheng, phd
Biodiversity scientist
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History
Samantha Cheng is a biodiversity scientist at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. She is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist whose research draws from the biological, social, and computer sciences, to understand connections between nature and human well-being in global coastal communities, the drivers of marine biodiversity, and build tools and assessments for evidence-based conservation decisions. One area of her research focuses on using population genetics and genomics to investigate drivers of diversification in marine ecosystems of Southeast Asia and California. In particular, she specializes in examining evolution and conservation genetics of cephalopods, focusing on commercially important species of squid, in collaboration with several institutions across the Coral Triangle region.
She has also worked extensively in the policy sphere – partnering with government agencies, conservation non-profits, multilateral institutions, and foundations to systematically evaluate the impact of conservation on ecological and social outcomes. Recent work in this arena include assessments of the links between conservation and human well-being, community engagement design, and social equity. Dr. Cheng is the founding co-Director of the Conservation Solutions Lab (https://www.chemonics.com/technical-areas/conservationsolutionslab/), a multi-institutional initiative aimed to design evidence-informed approaches to community engagement in biodiversity conservation. She runs two online, open access tools to facilitate assessing and accessing evidence for conservation decision making: 1) Colandr (www.colandrapp.com), a machine-learning assisted platform for evidence synthesis; and 2) The Evidence for Nature and People Data Portal (www.natureandpeopleevidence.org), an interactive exploration portal for evidence on links between nature and people. She holds a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. from Scripps College.