I am currently a post doc with Andy Clark’s group at Cornell in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. The two general threads of research that I have been aiming to cultivate have to do with gene family evolution and sensory variation.

Currently, my work has been focusing on establishing a system for understanding the genetic variation that underlie perceptual differences between individuals.  The long-term questions I am interested in addressing have to do with the characterization and quantification of the variability that exists at different levels of signaling processing in sensory systems.  To get at this more immediately, I have been studying the periphery of the Drosophila chemosensory system (the olfactory and gustatory neurons - and the receptors they express - as well as other gene families involved in chemical perception) from world-wide samples of flies.  The basic idea is that by studying populations that belong to a single species, but have come to inhabit ecologically diverse regions, we will gain insight into the early stages of perceptual shifts and obtain a better understanding of the role that neutral and selective forces have in the process. My approach has been using a combination of population genetics analyses, expression assays, and electrophysiology (images of recording setup). We are currently gearing up to add simple behavioral experiments to the mix as well.

I carried out my graduate work in the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, where I studied evolutionary genetics with Manyuan Long’s group in the Department of Ecology and Evolution.  My research at Chicago focused on the origin and evolution/population genetics of gene families, with particular interests on young chimeric genes and chemoreceptor gene families in Drosophila. I also worked on a project investigating recombination and the reduction of purifying selection along the Drosophila’s 4th chromosome in three closely related species (D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. yakuba).  In addition to lab work, I was associated with The Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science. My efforts with this were aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the early history of genetics, with my master’s thesis investigating William Bateson’s refusal of the chromosome theory of inheritance.  I was advised by Bill Wimsatt and Bob Richards.

Prior to grad school, while in college at Oregon State University, I spent several years working with Stevan Arnold’s group. I primarily worked under (then post doc) Adam Jones on issues related to measurements of sexual selection.

Before moving to Ithaca, and before Chi-town, I had spent a lot of time outside in the woods and along the coast of Oregon, or in the mountains and deserts of Colorado - the saddle of my bike providing the preferred vantage.  Though there are no mountains in Chicago, I really enjoyed taking advantage of the incredible neighborhood activities and events the city hosts. I continued to ride too, and picked up a whole new set of biking skills adapted to the urban terrains (many of these verbal).  Now that I am here in the fairly rural countryside of New York - surrounded by state parks and forests - I have been getting back on single track and pedaling along hilly empty country roads.