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Professor John A. (Alex) Erwin received his J.D. from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He graduated magna cum laude with a certificate in Environmental Law, Science, and Policy and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. During law school, he was the Articles Editor of the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy and held the Sol Resnick Water Resources Fellowship, Agnese Nelms Haury Social Justice Law Fellowship, and the Carson Scholars Institute of the Environment Fellowship.
Prior to joining the FIU Law faculty, Professor Erwin was the Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. At Pace, Professor Erwin taught Environmental Law, Conservation Law, and Science for Environmental Lawyers. Before that, Professor Erwin was a Teaching Fellow and Professor of Practice at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona.
Professor Erwin’s background is in wildlife conservation and genetics. He first earned his B.S. in Biology and Biochemistry at Washington and Lee University, before earning a Ph.D. from the Graduate Interdisciplinary Department in Genetics at the University of Arizona. He has experience doing field work, wet lab genetics, and bioinformatics, and he has worked with everything from freshwater mussels to jaguars. For his dissertation, he employed genomic methods to answer practical conservation and wildlife management questions. His dissertation work explored the effects of sport hunting on mountain lion populations and aided the reintroduction of black-tailed prairie dogs back into Arizona.
Professor Erwin teaches and conducts research in the fields of environmental law and natural resources law. Combining his legal training with his background as a wildlife biologist, his research is situated at the intersection of environmental law, genetics, and conservation. His research to date has focused on three issues: (1) wildlife conservation and management, particularly through the lens of genetics and evolutionary biology; (2) genetic engineering and related biotechnological developments, specifically as they relate to conservation and environmental protection; and, more broadly, (3) the interplay of science, law, and policy. His publication record spans both peer-reviewed scientific journals and more traditional law reviews. His legal scholarship is published or forthcoming in the Cornell Law Review, the Environmental Law Reporter, and the William and Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. His article, Hybridizing Law: A Policy for Hybridization Under the Endangered Species Act, was recognized with an Honorable Mention in the 2018 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) as one of the top environmental policy-relevant articles from 2016-2017.