He earned his B.Sc. in Biology (Honours) from Queen’s University in 1991, followed by a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in 1997. Postdoctoral work included an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta and a Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. Dave has held academic positions as a Lecturer of Molecular Ecology at the University of Sheffield and as a Professor at the University of Alberta, where he also served as Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean of Research. He currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Western University. His research spans molecular ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology, focusing on wild mammal populations to understand genetic architecture and phenotypic variation related to fitness.