From 2001 to 2006, Wood served as research and curatorial assistant for the herpetological collection at
La Sierra University in
Riverside, California. From 2003 to 2005, he was a lecturer and teaching assistant in Tropical Field Biology at La Sierra University. In 2004, he collaborated with
Larry Lee Grismer and
Jesse Leland Grismer on the
Animal Planet documentary
Reptile Kings: Search for the Lost Viper. In 2007, Wood earned his
Bachelor of Science degree in
biological sciences from La Sierra University. From 2008 to 2009, he was a lecturer in
biology and
herpetology at
Villanova University. In 2011, he completed his
Master of Science at Villanova University under the supervision of
Todd R. Jackman and
Aaron M. Bauer, with a thesis titled
Systematics, biogeography, taxonomy and delimiting species complexes in the Southeast Asian lizard genus Acanthosaura Gray, 1831 inferred from mitochondrial and fast-evolving protein coding nuclear loci. From 2012 to 2015, he lectured in
evolutionary biology at
Brigham Young University. In 2017, he received his
Ph.D. from Brigham Young University with the dissertation
Phylogenetics, Biogeography, and Patterns of Diversification of Geckos across the Sunda Shelf with an Emphasis on the Genus Cnemaspis (Strauch, 1887), supervised by
Jack W. Sites Jr. From January 2017 to August 2018, Wood was a postdoctoral researcher under
Rafe M. Brown at the
University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, working on the project
Comparative phylogenomics of the Philippines. Since August 2018, he has been a research associate at the
Auburn University project
Generalizing Bayesian phylogenetics to infer shared evolutionary events, led by
Jamie R. Oaks. His research primarily focuses on evolutionary biology in Southeast Asia. He investigates
cryptic species of amphibians and reptiles, evolutionary patterns and processes, and the
systematics and historical
biogeography of the
Sunda Islands region. His master’s thesis focused on species delimitation and historical biogeography of the Southeast Asian agamid genus
Acanthosaura. His doctoral work centered on collecting
morphological and
molecular data to address questions about ground adaptation,
convergent evolution, and
adaptive radiation in the Southeast Asian gecko genus
Cnemaspis. His research projects include comparative
phylogeography of the herpetofauna of the Malay Peninsula, across the
Isthmus of Kra and the
Kangar–Pattani line, as well as testing hypotheses on phylogeography, biogeography, and
speciation in Southeast Asia using genomic data. He also works on evolutionary systematics, species delimitation, and historical biogeography of geckos and agamids in Southeast Asia, as well as theoretical systematics,
phylogenomics, and
Bayesian coalescent methods for delineating species complexes and estimating co-divergence. Wood’s fieldwork has taken him to the
Malay Peninsula,
Thailand,
Indonesia,
Myanmar,
Peru, and
Cambodia. He has contributed to the description of more than 130 species of geckos and skinks, eight frog species, and one species of caudate amphibian. Wood is a member of the
International Biogeography Society, the
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the
Herpetologists’ League, the
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the
Society for the Study of Evolution, and the
Society of Systematic Biologists. == References ==