Ricardo Romo Ph.D. Endowed Professorship
Luca Pozzi, Ph.D.
Ricardo Romo Ph.D. Endowed Professorship
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Luca Pozzi’s research centers on primate biodiversity, conservation, evolution, and the ecological and evolutionary driving factors that shape diversification and speciation.
He is principal investigator of the Pozzi Lab at UTSA, where he and his team study the origin of biological diversity and investigate the evolution of reproductive barriers that reduce or prevent gene flow among populations. The lab also seeks to understand how primates respond to human-induced environmental and climatic change.
Pozzi has published several refereed book chapters and his research has been featured in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Science Advances, Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Ecology and Evolution and the Journal of Biogeography.
He currently has an h-index of 16 and over 850 citations, and his research has been funded by notable organizations like the National Science Foundation.
Pozzi’s research has led him to Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, and other sub-Saharan African countries. He was a member of a team of researchers that discovered the Paragalago—a new genus of the nocturnal tree-dwelling bush baby primate—that has now been identified in several southeastern African countries.
Pozzi joined UTSA faculty in 2016 and has been a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars since 2021. He takes pride in creating new, engaging classroom environments that promote deeper learning, and hopes to stimulate a life-time curiosity for science in his students by making learning accessible and fun.
In recognition of his exceptional teaching, Pozzi was presented with the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2021, the top teaching honor from the UT System. He is a recipient of the UTSA President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Core Curriculum Teaching (2020) and Teaching Excellence (2023). Pozzi also received the Researcher of the Year Award from the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts in 2021, and was a 2023-2024 Lutcher Brown Fellow.
In addition to his research and teaching, Pozzi is highly involved in supporting diversity and inclusion both in and outside the classroom. He served as chair of the LGBTQ+ Faculty and Staff Association at UTSA (Pride FSA) from 2021 to 2023 and is a member of the Society of Systematic Biologists’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC).
Pozzi earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University. Prior to joining UTSA, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the German Primate Center (DPZ).
