Research Interests
Ecological genetics sits at the crossroads of evolutionary biology, ecology, field biology, experimental design, molecular genetics, natural history and genomics. A significant and exciting challenge in this new world of "-omics sciences" is understanding how genetic variation is relevant to organisms living their lives out in Nature. The students in my lab and I are interested in an array of topics in ecological genetics, although we are mainly interested in the evolution of traits that we can show are ecologically relevant to organisms in the field. Our approach is to integrate field experiments with genetic techniques to learn the fitness effects of traits and the selective histories of the genes that underlie these traits. A new research emphasis in my lab is on the evolutionary genetics of invasive plants in both the U.S. and China. Although I personally focus on studies of natural plant populations in my own work, my students work independently to explore a variety of interesting questions.