Department of Biological Science

Scott Burgess
My research combines ecological and evolutionary principles to study the population biology of coastal marine invertebrates. One main focus is on the evolution of dispersal, reproductive strategies, and life histories. Another main focus is on the ecology and evolution of cryptic species of corals in the genus Pocillopora. We typically use some combination of field and laboratory experiments, population, quantitative, and molecular genetics, and mathematical modeling/theory.

Michael Cortez
I am interested in how ecological, evolutionary, and epidemiological processes interact to drive population-level dynamics. My research program involves the development and use mathematical models to understand how species interactions and variation in species traits (due to evolution or phenotypic plasticity) affect the dynamics of predator-prey, host-pathogen, and other communities.

Kimberly A. Hughes
Why are organisms are so genetically diverse? This is the broad question on which my lab focuses. In particular, we want to understand how variation is maintained in traits that are under strong natural selection: life history traits, sexually selected traits, and other traits closely tied to fitness. We use a variety of approaches to investigate these issues ranging from field experiments to genomic analyses.

Brian D. Inouye
I am a quantitative population and community ecologist, mostly working with plants and insects. I am interested in how variation among individuals (in traits, stages, and spatial locations) affects population dynamics and species interactions. Projects in the lab include work on spatial neighborhood effects on plants and insects, tritrophic interactions among plants-seed predators-parasitoids, mathematical models of communities, and phenological responses to climate change.

Darin R Rokyta
I study the genetics of adaptation, primarily in the context of the coevolution between venomous animals and their prey. My research group studies the venoms of snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and spiders, and we are interested in how the genetics of traits influence their evolutionary trajectories.

Scott Steppan
My research is focused on understanding the origin of biological diversity. I reconstruct phylogenies of highly diverse groups like rodents and bivalves and use those phylogenies to explore biogeography, morphological evolution, rates of diversification, and how patterns of correlations among traits themselves evolve,

Nora Underwood
I study the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions, with a focus on how genotypic and phenotypic variation among individuals affects the long-term spatial and temporal dynamics of populations and communities. I also work on the effects of climate on plant and insect phenology and on the consequences of changes in phenology. I work in both natural and agricultural systems, and use a combination of greenhouse and field experiments and mathematical modeling.

Amy Webster
Using C. elegans as a model, we are interested in how differences in gene expression and chromatin can both cause and predict phenotypic differences across individuals, how these differences interact with genetic and environmental variation, and how heritable epigenetic effects may shape populations on short and long timescales.

Janie L. Wulff
Mutualisms, life history and morphological strategies, predator defenses, and biogeography of clonal marine invertebrates, especially sponges.