Author Archives: Rob Denton

Fungi and the quest for old polyploids

Polyploidy, that curious increase in a species’ number of genomes, is now a well recognized force in the evolutionary history of plants and animals. Those extra genomes are often much more than just extra: having a spare genome or four … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Matt Fujita on juggling personalities and buying a lonely PCR machine

Welcome to the final (!) installment in the How Molecular Ecologists Work series! We’ve received a great deal of positive feedback about these peeks into the lives of our colleagues, so we’d like to begin the planning for season 2 of “How … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Joel McGlothlin on self critique and the whereabouts of elusive emails

Welcome to the next installment in the How Molecular Ecologists Work series! This entry is from Dr. Joel McGlothlin, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Joel’s work spans across several areas of evolutionary biology, but you … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Hopi Hoekstra on hiring good people, setting the tone, and remembering sushi orders

Welcome to How Molecular Ecologist Work! Today I’m starting our bonus interviews with Dr. Hopi Hoekstra, Professor of Zoology at Harvard University. Hopi and her lab study the mechanisms of adaptation in the wild and in the laboratory, and she is one of … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: John McCormack on luck, not closing doors, and just a touch of hustle-and-bustle

Welcome to the next installment in the How Molecular Ecologists Work series! This entry is from Dr. John McCormack, assistant professor at Occidental College. John is a member of the team that pioneered the use of ultraconserved elements, and his … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Katerina Guschanski on running shoes and the boost of a closed door

Welcome to the next installment of How Molecular Ecologists Work! This entry is from Dr. Katerina Guschanski, assistant professor at Uppsala University. Katerina is a widely-trained molecular ecologist who most often works with non-human primates. I’ve learned that it often involves … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Sarah Hird on resenting Adobe, letting yourself off the hook, and starting with the hard work

Welcome to the next installment of How Molecular Ecologists Work! This entry is from Dr. Sarah Hird, postdoc at the University of California, Davis Genome Center and (new!) assistant professor at the University of Connecticut come this fall. Sarah has worked on … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: David Toews on the joy of making figures, reading in the field, and the magic track pad

Welcome to the next installment of How Molecular Ecologists Work! This entry is from Dr. David Toews, Banting Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell University. David’s uses genomic data in combination with phenotypic, geographic, and behavioral data to ask questions about the … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Aaron Shafer on the perfect sentence, making phone calls, and German hip-hop

Welcome to the next installment of the How Molecular Ecologists Work series! For this entry, we have Dr. Aaron Shafer, who is currently transitioning from a postdoc position at Uppsala University to an assistant professor position at Trent University. Aaron … Continue reading

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How Molecular Ecologists Work: Tracy Heath on TSA precheck, writing on your desk, and not having an alarm clock

Welcome to the next installment of How Molecular Ecologists Work! This entry is from Dr. Tracy Heath, assistant professor at Iowa State University. Tracy and her lab develop methods and models for inferring phylogenetic relationships. Some of these approaches have included using paleontological data … Continue reading

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