Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2023-2024

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Agricultural Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology

Research Summary: Environmental change, like pollution events or climate warming, can cause animal and plant populations to decline. One strategy that can enable populations to persist under these circumstances is adaptive evolution, or adaptation. My research focuses on how to manage populations after the onset of environmental stress. Specifically, I study how different processes, including increasing genetic diversity or facilitating immigration, influence rapid adaptation to new environments. My work has applications in conservation, where promoting adaptation can be necessary to sustain populations, as well as in agricultural systems, where inhibiting adaptation is instead desired for minimizing the impact of pest species.

Advisor: Ruth Hufbauer