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Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Program |
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Graduate Student Coordinator: Melissa Torres
Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Faculty Director: Barbara Schaal
Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Program Website
Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Program Guidelines
Request Ph.D. Admssions Information
The Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Program combines population genetics, phylogenetic and ecological perspectives to study the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. It is a diverse program that combines field studies with the technical advances of molecular genetics and mathematical theory to gain an understanding of evolutionary history and environmental biology.
Population genetic studies ask: "What kinds of genetic variation (including human populations and medically relevant variation) occur in natural populations? How do population genetic processes lead to the evolution of new species and adaptation?"
Studies of phylogeny ask: "What are the evolutionary relationships of different plant and animal species? How do historically acquired developmental and functional constraints channel morphological and ecological evolution in different lineages? What kinds of developmental processes underlie the evolutionary diversification of different plant and animal groups?"
Ecological experiments provide crucial information on how organisms meet environmental challenges: "At which stages of the life cycle is mortality most severe and how do different species interact to establish ecological communities?"
Studies of these issues are geographically and taxonomically diverse. Local projects include studies of the effects of genetic fragmentation on the evolution of many
animal and plant populations in the Missouri glades. Experiments on the behavioral ecology and life history of vertebrate populations are conducted at the local Tyson Research Center which has a diverse vertebrate fauna.
Studies on a global scale address plant diversity in the tropics, South America ethnobotany, adaptive radiation of lizards on Caribbean islands, speciation and adaptive evolution of Hawaiian insect fauna and the conservation biology of African large mammals.
The Program's close association with the Missouri Botanical Garden is conductive to the systematic study of plant diversity on a worldwide scale. Studies of the conservation biology of exotic large animals are facilitated by collaborations with the nearby St. Louis Zoo. Additional major foci of research include the processes of molecular evolution, genetics of transposable elements and multigene families, quantitative genetics of primate morphological evolution and primate behavior and speciation.
For information regarding career path and complete program guidelines, click here. To reach an additional program website, click here. |  |
| Photo courtesy of Chuck Dresner. |
Program of Study
The course work in the Program is centered around four core courses:
Population Genetics (Bio 4181)
Macroevolution (Bio 4182)
Community Ecology (Bio 419)
Population Ecology (4170)
Students are also expected to enroll in the Population Biology Seminar (Bio 580) each semester for the first two years of the Program. A number of specialty courses are also available, including:
Statistics (Bio 422)
History of Genetics (Bio 454)
Floristic Taxonomy (Bio 585)
Molecular Evolution (Bio 588)
Quantitative Genetics (Bio 4202)
In addition to formal course work, students undertake three research laboratory rotations, each approximately three months in duration, to obtain experience in areas including the techniques of molecular genetics, morphomerty, quantitative genetics, field ecology, cytology, and systematics.
Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Faculty |
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| Garland E. Allen, Ph.D. - History, philosophy and sociology of biology, especially genetics, evolution, embryology and eugenics. |
| Yehuda Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. - Molecular and gentic analyses of behavior using Drosophila as a model |
| Douglas E. Berg, Ph.D. - Helicobacter pylori pathogenic mechanisms, drug resistance, genome organization, evolution. |
| Bruce A. Carlson, Ph.D. - Temporal coding in sensory systems |
| Jonathan M. Chase, Ph.D. - The causes and consequences of species interactions on biodiversity. |
| James M. Cheverud, Ph.D. - Evolutionary quantitative genetics of growth and morphology, quantitative trait locus mapping in model systems primate systematics. |
| C. Robert Cloninger, M.D. - Multidisciplinary research on the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric disorders. |
| Glenn C. Conroy, Ph.D. - Human evolution; primate evolution; computed tomography. |
| Thomas B. Croat, Ph.D. - Systematics and ecology of Araceae. |
| C. Michael Crowder, M.D., Ph.D. - C. elegans behavioral genetics, hypoxic cell death, general anesthetic targets. |
| Ellen I. Damschen, Ph.D. - Limits to species distributions and how anthropogenic change affects communities. |
| Justin C. Fay, Ph.D. - Population and evolutionary genetics, computational and experimental genomics. |
| Eduardo A. Groisman, Ph.D. - Regulation and evolution of virulence in a bacterial pathogen. |
| Andrew C. Heath, D.Phil. - Genetic studies of alcoholism, smoking and drug dependence, depression, suicidality and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and methodological research in genetic epidemiology. |
| Peter C. Hoch, Ph.D. - Phylogenetics of Onagraceae, especially Epilobium; biogeography, floristics, pollination biology. |
| Tiffany M. Knight, Ph.D. - Role of interspecific interactions on plant population dynamics. |
| Allan Larson, Ph.D. - Molecular population genetics and phylogenetics of amphibians and reptiles. |
| Kenneth M. Olsen, Ph.D. - Plant evolutionary genetics, molecular population genetics, genetics of adaptation, phylogeography. |
| John L. Orrock, Ph.D. - How behavior modifies plant-consumer and predator-prey dynamics; spatial ecology and conservation biology. |
| Jane E. Phillips-Conroy, Ph.D. - Population biology and behavior of free-ranging primates. |
| Herman Pontzer, Ph.D. - Locomotor biomechanics and ecomorphology of humans and other animals. |
| D.C. Rao, Ph.D. - Statistical genetics, and genetic epidemiological investigations of cardiovascular disease and its co-morbidities. |
| Peter H. Raven, Ph.D. - Systematics and evolution of Onagraceae and Myrtales, phytogeography, tropical floristics and conservation. |
| P. Mick Richardson, Ph.D. - Plant secondary compounds; taxonomy; cladistics; evolution of toxic compounds. |
| Jan Salick, Ph.D. - Ethnobotany is the interactions among plants, peoples, and their environments in either ecological or evolutionary time. |
| Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D. - Evolutionary genetics and systematics of plants. |
| Brian K. Suarez, Ph.D. - Genetic epidemiology of psychiatric disorders, linkage studies of Mendelian diseases with emphasis on theoretical issues involved in mapping recessives in endogamous populations. |
| Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D. - Application of molecular genetic techniques and statistical evolutionary genetics to the study of genotype/phenotype associations, the evolution of the human genome, and the conservation of endangered species. |
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