Kerry L. Shaw The research in my laboratory investigates the nature and origin of species, focusing on genetic and phylogenetic behavioral changes that diverge early in speciation. Current research effort focuses on studies of reproductive behavior and the evolution of mate recognition among closely related species.

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Current Lab Members

Postdocs

Chris Wiley I’m broadly interested in how new species evolve, and the evolutionary implications of ongoing hybridization between newly formed species. I completed my PhD at the Department of Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, and my thesis research focused on a hybrid zone between collared and pied flycatchers in Sweden. This work addressed a variety of topics ranging from the degree of niche overlap between the two species and the direct and indirect fitness consequences of hybridization, to genetic linkage between traits underlying assortative mating.

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Christopher K. Ellison I am broadly interested in the evolutionary dynamics of the speciation process. In the laboratory, I use molecular biology tools to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms contributing to species divergence and isolation. My dissertation research focused on nuclear-mitochondrial integration in the marine copepod Tigriopus californicus and the functional and regulatory consequences of the failure of this integration in interpopulation hybrids. I am currently working with Kerry Shaw and studying the genetic basis of mate recognition in the Hawaiian cricket genus Laupala. Ultimately, we hope to identify and characterize mate recognition loci to better understand the evolution of prezygotic isolation in the genus.

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Graduate Students

Elizabeth R. Turnell I am interested in how mate choice behavior drives sexual selection. In particular, I am investigating cryptic mate choice, which occurs during or after copulation. Unlike precopulatory choice, which involves two discrete alternatives (accept or reject) cryptic choice allows individuals to continuously vary their reproductive investment depending on the quality of their mating partner. Currently I am studying cryptic mate choice in the Hawaiian swordtail cricket Laupala cerasina, a species in which both sexes are likely to exercise choice due to a shared high cost of reproduction.

	Daniel Fergus

Jaime Grace (Maryland) http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~jgrace/
Sky Lesnick (Maryland)
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Former Lab Members

Postdocs

Dr. Yvonne Parsons http://genserv.gen.latrobe.edu.au/Staff/ymp/old/index.html
Dr. Tamra Mendelson http://www.umbc.edu/biosci/Faculty/mendelson.html
Dr. Patrick Danley http://chemlife.umd.edu/biology/shawlab/patrickdanley/Patrick%20Danley.html
Dr. Sean Mullen http://www.lehigh.edu/~inbios/faculty/mullen.html

Graduate Students

Manda Jost http://www.lifesci.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/Manda.html
Tagide deCarvalho
Jennifer Jadin

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