I am an evolutionary biologist interested in contemporary evolution in natural populations. I study the relative contribution of different evolutionary forces in shaping patterns of variation across the genome through space and time. I received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, where I was co-advised by Andrew Clark and John Fitzpatrick. Currently, I am an NSF postdoctoral fellow working with Graham Coop at the University of California, Davis. I will be starting a faculty position at the University of Rochester in July 2018. My research integrates genomics and evolutionary genetics with natural history and field biology. I develop novel, pedigree-based statistical methods and apply them to a long-term demographic study of the endangered Florida Scrub-Jay to answer fundamental questions in evolutionary biology.
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Population genetics with pedigrees
One of the deepest unresolved paradoxes in evolutionary biology is the persistence of high levels of genetic variation in the face of selection. Why do we observe abundant genetic variation in many traits associated with fitness in natural populations? One possible mechanism for maintaining variation is antagonistic selection. However, empirical validations of these predictions are rare in natural populations because they require significant phenotypic and genomic data over multiple generations and rigorous methods for inferring contemporary natural selection from temporal genomic datasets are lacking. Most selection inference methods to date (1) do not take advantage of the additional power gained from considering the full pedigree and (2) are designed to detect large effect alleles. I develop sophisticated statistical methods to detect short-term selection from longitudinal genomic data and pedigree data, and I apply my methods to test for stage- or sex-specific differences in selection components.
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Evolutionary and conservation genomics
My research aims to elucidate the evolutionary dynamics of declining populations in the wild. Despite much theoretical work describing the genetic consequences of population decline, few empirical validations of these theories have been done in wild populations. Numerous basic and applied research efforts to date have used small numbers of neutral genetic markers, but it is unclear whether this adequately represents patterns and levels of adaptive genetic variation. Indeed, the precise relationship between loss of genetic variation and decline in fitness remains poorly understood. The Florida Scrub-Jay is one of the longest-studied endangered species in the world and an unparalleled model system for conservation genomics. I combine population and quantitative genetics to comprehensively test whether and how reduced genetic diversity predicts a decline in fitness. This work will increase our understanding of the population genetic consequences of declining population size and inform conservation strategies for this rare bird.
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Bioinformatics and avian genomics
I create bioinformatics tools to address observed limitations in our abilities to (1) assemble complete genomes and (2) rapidly but reliably generate a genome-wide set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The female-specific W chromosomes and male-specific Y chromosomes remain difficult to assemble using whole-genome shotgun methods. I developed a novel method for identifying sequences specific to the heterogametic sex chromosome, which should facilitate future genome assembly efforts and enhance future studies on sex chromosome evolution. To improve the SNP discovery process in non-model organisms, I developed a statistical framework for filtering spurious variant calls and identifying putative sex-linked sites using Mendelian inheritance patterns in nuclear families. This method has been implemented in C++ and is available for download here.