Liam McGuire

Liam McGuire is a physiological ecologist with an integrative research program, examining broader concepts by asking questions at multiple levels of organization. McGuire's research broadly falls in the areas of physiological ecology, movement ecology, thermal biology and ecological energetics. He takes an organismal biology approach, focussing questions at the level of the study animal. As such, natural history is an important part of his research, providing context for both hypotheses and results.

McGuire is broadly interested in how animals cope with energetic challenges and how these challenges are driven by environmental conditions and constraints. Bats and birds are great study systems for asking these questions, facing periods of very high energy demands and periods of very low energy availability.

His current research focusses primarily on migration and hibernation in bats. As the only two extant groups of flying vertebrates, McGuire is particularly interested in comparisons of bat and bird migration. In some cases he uses bird migration as a better-studied model system, but there are many distinct aspects of bat migration including thermoregulatory strategies, activity periods, and reproductive systems. Research in this area focusses on the implications of heterothermy in migration, seasonal resource limitations, and landscape- and regional-scale movement patterns. Much of this research is related to human wildlife conflict including the problems of bat mortality at wind energy facilities and Hendra virus spillover and migratory bats in Australia.

Another major area of current research is hibernation and white-nose syndrome. Across eastern and central North America, millions of bats have been killed by this fungal disease after it was introduced from Europe. McGuire's research program includes several projects looking at the ecology and physiology of hibernation and the pathophysiology of the disease. He is particularly interested in inter- and intra-specific variation in hibernation, including considerations of hibernation at more southern latitudes where winter is shorter and not as harsh as in the north.

• Physiological Ecology

• Organismal Biology

• Movement Ecology

• Thermal Biology

• Ecological energetics

• Ecology and Environmental Biology

• 2012 Ph.D. Biology (Ecology and Evolution), University of Western Ontario, Canada

• 2005 B.Sc. Biology, Carleton University, Canada

• 2018 Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award

• 2012 Dr. John W. Arnold Fellowship thesis award, University of Western Ontario

• 2012 NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship

• 2010 Titley Electronics Award for outstanding student platform presentation, North American Society for Bat Research

• 2009 Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined)

• 2009 NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship- Doctoral

• 2004 NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (declined)

• Board of Directors, North American Society for Bat Research: Chair, Finance Committee, Chair, Policy and Public Relations Committee

• Advisory Committee Member, Motus Wildlife Tracking System

• Co-local Host, 2023 Joint Meeting of the 19th International Bat Research Conference and 52nd meeting of the North American Society for Bat Research

• University of Waterloo Service: Biology Representative, Waterloo Science Endowment Fund

• North American Society for Bat Research

• Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

• Canadian Society of Zoologists

• Adjunct Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University

• BIOL 150 - Organismal and Evolutionary Ecology
  • Taught in 2021
• BIOL 370 - Comparative Animal Physiology: Environmental Aspects
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BIOL 371 - Comparative Animal Physiology: Evolutionary Themes
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BIOL 499A - Senior Honours Project
  • Taught in 2021, 2022
• BIOL 499B - Senior Honours Project
  • Taught in 2021, 2022
• BIOL 605 - Environmental Animal Physiology
  • Taught in 2021, 2023

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Please see Liam McGuire’s Google Scholar profile for a current list of peer-reviewed articles: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=By8vI7wAAAAJ&hl=en.

• Oct 23, 2019. “23 Questions.” Texas Tech University YouTube.
• Aug 6, 2019. “Partnerships in Conservation: Bats for the Future Fund.” National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• Feb 18, 2019. “Saving the Bats, One Cave at a Time.” New York Times.
• Oct 18, 2018. “Plague Marching West: Researchers Study Bats to Stop Their Demise.” The Guardian.
• May 25, 2018. “White-nose Syndrome in North American Bats.” National Public Radio.
• Feb 28, 2018. “Mysterious Deaths of Migrating Bats.” National Public Radio.