His research studies the ecology of natural selection using experimental techniques. His studies focus on a number of specific problems ranging from the differences in inflorescence size among populations of the flypoisonlily, Zigadenus (Amianthium) muscatoxicus in Virginia to the striking divergence in body size in north Florida populations of the sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna. Populations of least killifish vary widely in density as well as in the form and amplitude of their fluctuations in population density, and in recent work Travis has identified which ecological factors are responsible for these differences in density regimes and what might be their cascading effects. He also is part of a large team of scientists, led by David Reznick of the University of California, Riverside, that is investigating how adaptation in Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata, alters how guppies interact with their predators and creates cascading effects on energy flow through the mountain stream ecosystem.
He has won many awards for both research and teaching. In 1984 FSU awarded him the Developing Scholar Award, and in 1992 he was given the University Teaching Award.[3] The university honored him again in 1996, awarding him the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor award, the highest honor faculty can bestow upon one another at the university.[4] In 2007, he was awarded the gold medal by the Tallahassee Scientific Society, which is awarded to a scientist or scholar who has outstanding achievements in both science or science education and science outreach.[5] In 2011 he won the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award from the American Society of Naturalists. The award "is given to an active investigator in mid-career who has made significant contributions to the knowledge of a particular ecosystem or group of organisms."[1]
