Research
Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics/Genomics, Systematics
My research program in plant systematics integrates ecology and biogeography to understand the historical processes that have produced the remarkable diversity of plants around the world. As human activities influence the climate, alter habitats, and cause extinctions, this historical perspective, coupled with cutting-edge analytical techniques, is proving essential to understand the future of plant diversity in our changing world.
Toward that end, I work to advance the use of bioinformatics to elevate and mobilize the tremendous resources of herbaria and herbarium specimens by integrating them with additional sources of big data – genomic, geologic, climatic, ecological, remote sensing, and species traits – to model plant diversification and assembly at multiple spatial and evolutionary scales.
Research in my lab ranges from the dynamics of genetic diversity within species to the evolution of plant orders, and from regional patterns of community assembly to the global structure of biodiversity.
Education
PhD, Botany, UW–Madison, 2015