Dr. Tom Shlesinger is a curator of scleractinian corals collection at the Steinhardt Museum and an Assistant Professor at the School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is also an avid diver and an award-winning underwater photographer who completed his Ph.D. in marine ecology and biology under the supervision of Prof. Yossi Loya (TAU) and conducted postdoctoral studies at Florida Institute of Technology (2019-2022) in Prof. Rob van Woesik’s lab. Tom joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University and established his laboratory at the Steinhardt Museum in January 2023. Most of the lab’s work is focused on the backbone of the underwater tropical world: stony corals. They are the engineers, architects, and artists who build and maintain the complex reef structures and breathe life into them. Coral reefs host a disproportionate amount of global marine biodiversity, as well as providing a wealth of services to humans worldwide, and they are widely recognized for their importance and value. Coral reefs, however, are also among the most rapidly degrading ecosystems due to multiple local and global threats.

Tom’s main interest lies in the evolution of marine animals’ life histories, particularly the sexual reproduction of reef-building corals, and how these respond to environmental changes. More broadly, he studies coral evolutionary ecology and biology, life histories, larval behavior, dispersal, taxonomy, and biodiversity using a mixture of experiments, fieldwork, lab work, and computational-statistical models. The overarching goals of the lab are to: (i) extend our fundamental biological and ecological knowledge regarding coral reproduction strategies and life-history trade-offs under varying conditions; (ii) predict the fate of coral populations and communities; (iii) provide useful tools to guide coral-reef conservation and management; (iv) promote a better understanding of natural ecosystems surrounding us from the cellular level through to the individual organism, population, community, and the ecosystem as a whole.