About the author Michael Yuan (he/him) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences working with Dr. Rayna Bell and Dr. Lauren Esposito. His work is focused on the evolutionary ecology and conservation of reptiles and amphibians, particularly in the Caribbean. Learn more at his website.  My work is broadly interested in the response of generalist species to environmental variation across the landscape. In particular, I am currently interested in questions of scale in local adaptation and how local adaptatio ..read more

About the author, our 2024 Best Student Paper Awardee: Isabella M. Reeves is a PhD Candidate in evolutionary ecology based at Flinders University. Her thesis focuses on using genomic and biochemical tools to understand how the evolution of populations has affected their behavior and ecology, with a focus on killer whales. Globally, human-wildlife cooperative relationships are rare, documented in only a few species such as wolves, greater honeyguides, and dolphins (Cram 2022). One of the most well-known examples is killer whales in Australia. Until the early 20th century Turembulerrer (Twofold ..read more

Check out his website and Bluesky (@drpintothe2nd.bsky.social). Can you provide an overview of your background and experience in evolutionary biology? What motivated you to pursue a career in this field? My interest in evolutionary biology broadly was sparked at a fairly young age while trying to reconcile what I was being taught as true in church and what I was observing to be true through my own experiences. However, evolutionary biology as a career path wasn’t even remotely approached until college. I went to an extremely small, primarily undergraduate school, Morningside College (now Morn ..read more

About the Author Miranda Wade received her B.S. in Biological Science from Colorado State University and her dual PhD in Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior from Michigan State University. During her time in the Meek Lab at MSU, her work consisted of using ‘omics to address various conservation questions in both a rare desert place facing land-use change and the molecular consequences of microplastics exposure in a model fish species. She is currently the Social Media Editor for the AGA and a PostDoc in the Sin Lab at the University of Hong Kong. Since we are no ..read more

About the Blog Author The Author. Photo credit: Rita Grunberg. Dr. Jennifer Hoey is an evolutionary ecologist and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Reefscape Genomics Lab at the California Academy of Sciences. She studies how marine organisms adapt to changing conditions by investigating the evolutionary processes that contribute to genomic and morphological patterns of variation in the sea. Follow Jennifer on Twitter @jahoey13 or on her website. Coral reefs are lively and dynamic places. When on a coral reef, you first might notice all the things that move – fish schooling around you, darting ab ..read more

About the Author Chris Robinson (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Bob Cox’s lab at the University of Virginia. His interests lay in how hormones contribute to phenotypic development and the evolution of hormone-genome interactions. His work uses hormonal manipulations, transcriptomics, and cellular imaging to understand how traits are gained and lost among closely related species. Chris loves to run and climb and believes that these hobbies are advantageous for being a capable lizard catcher! Check out his new paper here! Hormones contribute to the development of many different traits, often by a ..read more

About the Scientist Kim Scribner is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University. Research in his lab involves applications of molecular genetic markers and evolutionary theory to examine questions in ecological genetics and conservation biology. Such investigations include determining levels of gene flow through heterogeneous landscapes, evolution of life history traits in changing environments, effects of environmental heterogeneity and mating systems on variance in reproductive success, and intra-specific ..read more

About the author Dylan in the field. Copyright Dylan Comb Dylan Comb is a fisheries research associate at Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute (GMGI) where he currently works on a population genetics study on Jonah crab as well as on a project using environmental DNA to assess biodiversity in tandem with traditional state fisheries surveys. His background is in ecology and field biology, with an interest in conservation science. Dylan’s career path has been very non-linear; he has worked as a fisheries observer, helped start a shellfish aquaculture farm, worked as a bicycle mechanic, and grew ..read more

About the Scientist Shawn Narum is the Chief Scientist of the Fishery Science Department in the Hagerman Genetics Lab at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC). He has 20+ years of experience as lead geneticist with CRITFC and manages several studies of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. He has many, many articles under his author belt, including a 2022 Journal of Heredity editor’s choice article, Implications of Large-Effect Loci for Conservation: A Review and Case Study with Pacific Salmon and the 2010 article Sequence Divergence of Heat Shock Genes ..read more

About the authors: Miranda Wade received her B.S. in Biological Science from Colorado State University and her dual PhD in Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior from Michigan State University. During her time in Mariah Meek’s lab at MSU, her work consisted of using ‘omics to address various conservation questions in both a rare desert place facing land-use change and the molecular consequences of microplastics exposure in a model fish species. She is currently the fearless associate editor for this blog and will begin a PostDoc at the University of Hong Kong in ea ..read more