Research
Research in the Department of Biology spans the entire breadth of biology: from ecology and evolution to molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Our research is supported by a wide array of funding sources, including NIH, NSF and the Welch Foundation.
Many departmental faculty members actively participate in campus-wide interdisciplinary graduate research programs, including Genetics & Genomics, Neuroscience, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Cryptic speciation; evolution of reproductive isolation; body size evolution; species packing and community assembly; range determinants; comparative physiological ecology; integrative evolutionary ecology
Blackmon Profile | Blackmon Lab page
Evolutionary genetics and genomics using both theoretical and empirical approaches. Empirical methods used include bioinformatics, phylogenetics, quantitative genetics.
Molecular basis of phenotypic variation and adaptation, Role of repetitive genome in evolution of sexual dimorphism and sexual conflict
Criscione Profile | Criscione Lab Website
Ecology, evolution, and genetics of parasites
Delmore Profile | Delmore Lab Webpage
Hybridization, speciation, and behavioral genomics
Fitzpatrick Profile | Fitzpatrick Lab Webpage
Trait evolution in animals, mathematical modeling of evolution, behavioral ecology, social and sexual selection, non-invasive field techniques
Moran Profile | Moran Lab Website
Local adaptation and speciation in fishes. Genetic basis of convergently evolved traits. Behavior, genomics, neurogenomics.
Murphy Profile | Murphy Lab Website
Phylogenomics, Comparative Genomics, Sex Chromosomes, Cats, Mammals
Paredes-Sabja Profile | Paredes-Sabja Lab Website
Molecular mechanisms of C. difficile pathogenesis and exosporium-assembly of C. difficile spores
Smotherman Profile | Smotherman Lab Webpage
Neurobiology of animal communication: sensory-motor integration
Strader Profile | Strader Lab Website
Evolutionary drivers of resiliency, molecular ecology, marine invertebrates
Adaptive coloration of marine invertebrates; distribution, behavior, and classification of eastern Pacific Decapoda Crustacea