New Faculty Profiles

In 2018, SSE launched a series of New Faculty Profiles to highlight and introduce up-and-coming PIs in SSE. We invite highlighted faculty to discuss their research, describe how SSE has impacted their career, and share any tips or stories they may have for other researchers. Find out how to submit a nomination here.

2022

Dr. Layton smiling at the camera with sand and water in the background.

Dr. Kara Layton

Dr. Layton is a Lecturer in Marine Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen stuyding diversity in aquatic ecosystems with a focus on hyperdiverse marine invertebrates. Learn more in her profile.

Moises with a beard and gray shirt smiling at the camera in front of a leafy green background.

Dr. Moisés Expósito-Alonso

Dr. Expósito-Alonso is a staff associate & assistant professor (by courtesy) of Biology at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University stuyding whether and how plants will evolve to keep pace with climate change. Learn more in his profile.

December 2021

Megan DeMarche in a gray sweater in front of a leafy green background smiling at the camera

Dr. Megan DeMarche

Dr. DeMarche is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia stuyding the ecology and evolution of wild plant populations, with an emphasis on responses to global change. Learn more in her profile.

Dr. Kathleen Grogan

Dr. Grogan is an assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology & Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati stuyding the impact of genetic and epigenetic variation on differences in fitness across environmental conditions. Learn more in her profile.

September 2021

Dr. Smukowski Heil in a blue button up and gray sweater with shoulder length wavy brown hair smiling at the camera

Dr. Caiti Smukowski Heil

Dr. Smukowski Heil is an assistant professor in the Department Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University stuyding processes that create and maintain variation in populations using genetics, genomics, and experimental evolution in Saccharomyces yeast. Learn more in her profile.

August 2021

Kate smiling at the camera wearing a pink shirt

Dr. Kate Laskowski

Dr. Laskowski is an assistant professor in the Department of Evolution & Ecology at the University of California Davis stuyding how evolution has shaped the developmental mechanisms that determine how individuals use and integrate all the different sources of information they're exposed to over their lifetimes to determine their behavioral phenotypes. Learn more in her profile.

July 2021

Janna Willoughby wearing rectangular glasses and smiling at the camera

Dr. Janna Willoughby

Dr. Willoughby is an assistant professor in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University stuyding how environmental change influences genetic diversity and complex traits like fitness, using banner-tailed kangaroo rat populations and freshwater mussels. Learn more in her profile.

June 2021

Dr. Moyers in a blue shirt and dark hair pulled back smiling in front of a blurred green background

Dr. Brook Moyers

Dr. Moyers is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston stuyding how and why traits vary within plant species to address real world problems, including food production and environmental contamination. Learn more in her profile.

April 2021

Nora Mitchell in a red shirt and black backwards baseball cap standing in field smiling at the camera

Dr. Nora Mitchell

Dr. Mitchell is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire stuyding plant evolution and hybridization at multiple phylogenetic and temporal scales. Learn more in her profile.

Jacqueline Sztepanacz in a blue shirt smiling at the camera

Dr. Jacqueline Sztepanacz

Dr. Lamichhaney is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto stuyding why traits stop evolving, using Drosophila as a model organism. Learn more in her profile.

March 2021

Sangeet Lamichhaney smiling at the camera

Dr. Sangeet Lamichhaney

Dr. Lamichhaney is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Kent State University stuyding the relative roles of evolutionary processes, such as genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity that underly trait evolution. Learn more in his profile.

Corlett Wood outside with sunglasses on her head smiling at the camera

Dr. Corlett Wood

Dr. Wood is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania stuyding the evolution and ecology of host-symbiont interactions, especially interactions involving multiple symbionts. Learn more in her profile.

December 2020

Dr. Haw Chuan Lim smiling at the camera

Dr. Haw Chuan Lim

Dr. Lim is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at George Mason University stuyding avian phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation and biogeography. Learn more in his profile.

October 2020

Alison Pischedda smiling at the camera

Dr. Alison Pischedda

Dr. Pischedda is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Barnard College stuyding the evolutionary and genetic causes and consequences of sexual selection and sexual conflict using Drosophila melanogaster. Learn more in her profile.

August 2020

Rebecca Tarvin headshot

Dr. Rebecca Tarvin

Dr. Tarvin is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Assistant Curator in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley stuyding causal genetic mechanisms underlying novel traits, phenotypic diversification at macro and micro-evolutionary scales, and factors that promote and constrain biodiversity. Learn more in her profile

Jesse Weber headshot

Dr. Jesse Weber

Dr. Weber is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology
University of Wisconsin-Madison using genetic approaches to better understand how and why vertebrates coevolve with their macroparasitess. Learn more in his profile

May 2020

Dr. Michael Landis

Dr. Landis is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis studying how evolutionary processes shape biodiversity over deep timescales. Learn more in his profile

Dr. Clare Scott Chialvo

Dr. Scott Chialvo is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at Appalachian State University studying the evolution of novel biochemical adaptations and their impact on the biodiversity of organisms. Learn more in her profile

April 2020

Dr. Tory Hendry

Dr. Hendry is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at Cornell University studying how interactions with eukaryotic hosts influence bacterial evolution. Learn more in her profile.

Dr. Laura Lagomarsino

Dr. Lagomarsino is an assistant professor in the Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Herbarium Director at Louisiana State University studying the origin and maintenance of Neotropical plant biodiversity. Learn more in her profile

March 2020

Dr. Nicholas Kooyers

Dr. Kooyers is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette studying how often local adaptation occurs in nature and the genetic and physiological mechanisms that either constrain or facilitate local adaptation. Learn more in his profile

Dr. Susana M. Wadgymar

Dr. Wadgymar is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at Davidson College studying the processes that promote or hinder adaptations in plants, with particular interests in the influences of genetics vs. the environment, climate change, and conservation. Learn more in her profile

February 2020

Dr. Gideon Bradburd

Dr. Bradburd is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University studying the role of geography in structuring patterns of population genetic variation and learning about the processes that shaped those patterns. Learn more in his profile

Dr. Margarita Lopez-Uribe

Dr. Lopez-Uribe is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at Penn State University studying how evolutionary history, ecological interactions and human management influence bee population responses to the unique biotic and abiotic conditions of agricultural ecosystems. Learn more in her profile

January 2020

Dr. Vanessa Koelling

Dr. Koelling is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science at Auburn University at Montgomery studying the evolutionary mechanisms important in plant mating system evolution and speciation, and the causal genetic changes underlying plant adaptations. Learn more in her profile

Dr. Felipe Zapata

Dr. Zapata is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles studying how evolution has generated biological diversity, in particular plant diversity. Learn more in his profile

December 2019

Dr. Nathaniel Sharp

Dr. Sharp is an assistant professor in the Genetics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying mutations, their spectrum of effects on genome sequences, and their consequences for individual fitness and population growth. Read his full profile here.

Dr. Marjorie Weber

Dr. Weber is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University studying cooperative and antagonistic interactions between plants and insects. Read her full profile here.

November 2019

Dr. Genevieve Kozak

Dr. Kozak is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth studying how assortative mating evolves during speciation. Read her full profile here.


 
 

Dr. Diogo Borges Provete

Dr. Borges Provete is an assistant professor in the Institute of Biosciences at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul studying how the interaction between microevolutionary processes at the population scale change trait distribution and scale up to influence patterns at the metacommunity scale. Read his full profile here.

October 2019

Dr. Emily Josephs

Dr. Josephs is an assistant professor in the Plant Biology department at Michigan State University studying how various evolutionary forces shape patterns of genetic variation and trait variation in natural and domesticated plant species. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Jonathan Puritz

Dr. Puritz is an assistant professor in the Biological Sciences Department at University of Rhode Island studying how natural and anthropogenic processes affect the evolution of marine populations through the lens of larval dispersal. Read his full profile here.

September 2019

Dr. Nancy Chen

Dr. Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester studying the evolution of natural populations on short timescales. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Natalie Steinel

Dr. Steinel is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell studying the evolutionary origins of the vertebrate adaptive immune system and the co-evolution of hosts and pathogens. Read her full profile here.

August 2019

Dr. Kevin Arbuckle

Dr. Arbuckle is a lecturer in the Department of Biosciences at Swansea University studying the origin and evolution of biodiversity in venomous and poisonous animals. Read his full profile here.

Dr. Lauren O'Connell

Dr. O'Connell is assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University studying how genetic and environmental factors contribute to biological diversity and adaptation. Read her full profile here.

July 2019

Dr. Seema Sheth

Dr. Sheth is assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University studying how quantitative genetic variation and demographic processes influence the dynamics of adaptation to novel conditions. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Yoav Ram

Dr. Ram is a senior lecturer in the School of Computer Science at IDC Herzliya studying the evolution of processes that generate and transmit variation, both genetic and phenotypic. Read his full profile here.

June 2019

Dr. Kathleen Gray Ferris

Dr. Ferris is an assistant professor in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University studying the genetic, phenotypic, and environmental basis of adaptation and speciation in Mimulus. Read her full profile here.

Dr. C. Brandon Ogbunu

Dr. Ogbunu is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University studying the complex interactions underlying disease phenomena across many scales. Read his full profile here.

May 2019

Dr. Rachel Germain

Dr. Germain is an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology & the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia studying the ecology and evolution of species coexistence in spatially-structured landscapes. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Josef Uyeda

Dr. Uyeda is an assistant professor of evolutionary biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic and State University studying the drivers of phenotypic evolution at the macroevolutionary scale. Read his full profile here.

March-April 2019

Dr. Daniel Field

Dr. Field is an assistant professor in evolutionary paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge studying the macroevolutionary history of birds. Read his full profile here.

Dr. Fay-Wei Li

Dr. Li is an assistant professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute on the Cornell University campus studying the evolutionary processes at the gene, genome, and microbiome levels that shaped the plant diversity. Read his full profile here.

February 2019

Dr. Katie McGhee

Dr. McGhee is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Sewanee: The University of the South studying the role parental effects have in shaping offspring behavior in a variety of fish species. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Scott A. Taylor

Dr. Taylor is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder studying the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation and the genetic bases of traits relevant to speciation. Read his full profile here.

January 2019

Dr. Emily B. Sessa

Dr. Sessa is an assistant professor at the University of Florida studying the evolutionary and ecological processes that shape plant diversity. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Ricardo Mallarino

Dr. Mallarino is an assistant professor at Princeton University studying the genetic and developmental mechanisms driving the evolution of  body form and structure in vertebrates. Read his full profile here.

November-December 2018

Dr. Melissa Kemp

Dr. Kemp is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Integrative Biology studying how environmental perturbations shape vertebrate communities through time and space. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Anahí Espíndola

Dr. Espíndola is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park studying how the abiotic and biotic environment affects the way species interact and diversify. Read her full profile here.

October 2018

Dr. Michael Sheehan

Dr. Sheehan is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University studying the causes and consequences of social evolution. Read his full profile here.

Dr. Aleeza Gerstein

Dr. Gerstein is an assistant professor in the Departments of Microbiology & Statistics at the University of Manitoba studying how different ecological and genomic factors influence the rate and predictability of evolution. Read her full profile here.

September 2018

Dr. Sara Branco

Dr. Branco is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Montana State University studying the ecology and evolution of fungi to further understand the ecological factors that generate and maintain fungal diversity. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton

Dr. Campbell-Staton is an assistant professor jointly appointed to the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department and the Institute for Society and Genetics at the University of California Los Angeles studying how climate shapes demographic history and adaptation over prehistoric and contemporary time periods. Read his full profile here.

August 2018

Dr. Emily Kane

Dr. Kane is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Georgia Southern University. She studies ecological and evolutionary biomechanics; specifically, locomotion, feeding, and the links between those systems. Read her full profile here.

Dr. David Des Marais

Dr. Des Marais is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studies how the physical environment impacts the evolution and ecology of natural plant populations. Read his full profile here.

July 2018

Dr. Claudia Bank

Dr. Bank is the Principal Investigator of the Evolutionary Dynamics Group at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia in Oeiras, Portugal. She studies how populations adapt and diversify, with a specific interest in the role of epistasis during these processes. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Dr. Krueger-Hadfield is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She studies the evolution of sex, using algal and invertebrate models to investigate the mechanisms that underlie the maintenance of life cycle and mating system variation. Read her full profile here.

June 2018

Dr. Martha Muñoz

Dr. Muñoz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech studying ecological processes and evolutionary patterns related to physiology. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Michael White

Dr. White is an Assistant Professor in the Genetics Department at the University of Georgia studying the evolution of sex chromosomes in threespine stickleback fish. Read his full profile here.

May 2018

Dr. Alison Wright

Dr. Wright is a NERC Independent Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield studying evolutionary conflicts of interest between males and females and the genomic mechanisms that lead to their resolution. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Cassie Stoddard

Dr. Stoddard is an assistant professor of biology at Princeton University studying avian vision and coloration and the development and structure of avian eggs. Read her full profile here.

April 2018

Dr. Jeremy Yoder

Dr. Yoder is an assistant professor of biology at California State University Northridge studying coevolution and the population genomics of local adaptation. Read his full profile here.

Dr. Megan Phifer-Rixey

Dr. Phifer-Rixey is an assistant professor of biology at Monmouth University studying the genetics of adaptation. Read her full profile here.

 

March 2018

Dr. Rayna C. Bell

Dr. Bell is a vertebrate research zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History studying the mechanisms that generate ecological and evolutionary diversity in amphibians and reptiles. Read her full profile here.

Dr. Sarah W. Fitzpatrick

Dr. Fitzpatrick is an assistant professor at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station at Michigan State University studying how genetic drift, gene flow, and selection interact in small and recently isolated populations in a changing environment. Read her full profile here.

How to submit a New Faculty Profile nomination

We welcome nominations (and self-nominations) of SSE members who are within 3 years of starting an independent research position. We wish to highlight the diversity of positions, institutions, study systems, approaches and researchers in SSE. To nominate yourself or someone else, please fill out the nomination form: SSE New Faculty Profiles Nomination Form.


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