Instructors
Note: Our course instructors are subject to change.
Eric Anderson
Eric is a research molecular geneticist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA, and a research associate in the Institute of Marine Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz. Eric develops and applies statistical and computational methods for inference from population genetic data. Most methods are directly relevant to management and conservation. His work has focused on Monte Carlo methods for efficient calculation of likelihoods from genetic models, Bayesian methods, computations on the coalescent process, application of hidden Markov models and graphical models to genetics, and inference in finite mixture models. He has recently been involved in developing methods for multigenerational pedigree inference using SNPs, deriving and using multiallelic "microhaplotype" marker data from next generation sequencing of amplicons, and large-scale pairwise relationship inference for close-kin mark-recapture.
Ellie Armstrong
Ellie is an assistant professor at UC Riverside. She worked in the Petrov and Hadly labs at Stanford University. She primarily focuses on the genomics of large carnivores and how we can improve genomic resources and build low-impact monitoring techniques for these species. She is experienced in both short- and long-read genome assembly methods across diverse taxa and whole-genome resequencing methods. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of small populations and how common population genetic estimates such as heterozygosity reflect population health, adaptive potential, and extinction risk. She co-leads California and international projects assembling genomes and teaching assembly.
Laura Bertola
Laura Bertola is a Research Associate at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Banggalore, India, where she investigates genomic consequences of small and isolated populations as a means of assessing vulnerability and informing management. Laura completed her PhD at Lieden University in the Netherlands with a dissertation project on population genetics and phylogeography in African lions. Later, Laura completed a postdoc at CUNY looking into biodiversity patterns in the Atlantic Corest in Brazil, integrating climate data with genomics.
Jessica Da Silva
Jessica Da Silva is a Senior Scientist at South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in the Evolutionary Genomics and Wildlife Management Department. Previously, Jessica was a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa Centre for Ecolgical Genomics and Wildlife Conservation.
Brenna Forester
Brenna is a landscape and molecular ecologist focused on conserving biodiversity in a period of rapid global change. Her research integrates environmental, genomic, and phenotypic data sets to assess adaptive capacity and inform the management of threatened species. Her current research areas include integrating genomic data into listing frameworks under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and conservation genomics of imperiled amphibians. She completed her MSc at Western Washington University, her PhD at Duke University, and a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship at Colorado State University. She is currently an Endangered Species Biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the Branch of Species Status Assessment Science Support.
Paul Grobler
Paul Grobler is a Professor of Genetics at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Paul received his BSc, BSc Honours, MSc and PhD degrees at the Rand Afrikaans University between 1987 and 1994. He started his professional career in the Department of Zoology at the University of the North in 1993 and 13 years later took up a position at the UFS. He is member of council and a previous president of SAWMA (the Southern African Wildlife Management Association) and is an NRF rated researcher (C2). He has research linkages with several local and international researchers and was elected to the adjunct faculty of Virginia Tech University in the USA from 2005 to 2018. He has acted as referee for a range of accredited journals and is currently Genetics sub-editor for the journals Mammalian Biology (Springer) and African Journal of Aquatic Sciences (Taylor & Francis). Thirty masters and 17 doctoral students have completed their studies under his supervision, with another 4 and 5 respectively currently registered. Paul has authored or co-authored 114 papers in peer reviewed journals and has made 39 contributions to international and 46 contributions to national conferences.
William Hemstrom
Will is a recent Ecology PhD graduate from UC Davis. His research focuses on the genetics of migration in Monarch Butterflies and other species and on improving and developing methods for estimating the genetic architecture of quantitative traits in order to better predict the demographic impacts of ecological changes on populations. He also has an interest in developing user-friendly software for population genetics in order to make the genetic toolkit more easily accessible for ecologists and conservationists.
Paul Hohenlohe
Paul A. Hohenlohe is an associate professor at the University of Idaho in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies. Research in his group focuses on population genetics and genomics in a wide range of systems with applications to conservation. He has been involved in developing analysis methods and applications for RAD sequencing, and ongoing research also uses techniques such as sequence capture and whole-genome sequencing. Current projects include the genomics of disease resistance in Tasmanian devils and island foxes; admixture and adaptation in pygmy rabbits, red wolves, and tamarisk leaf beetles; and adaptive capacity and local adaptation in scrub jays, redband trout, and sagebrush.
Marty Kardos
Marty Kardos is a research molecular geneticist with the National Marine Fisheries Service at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. He uses empirical and simulation-based approaches to understand evolution and population dynamics in the wild. Kardos' current work focuses on using genomic analyses of marine mammals and marine and anadromous fishes, with the ultimate goal of informing resource management and conservation. He is particularly interested in using genomic approaches to understand inbreeding depression, historical population size, hybridization, and their fitness consequences, and the intersection of adaptive potential and population dynamics.
Gordon Luikart
Gordon Luikart is a professor at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (91短视频). He was a Research Scientist with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, and a Professor at the University of Porto (and CIBIO) Portugal. His research focuses on the development and application of molecular and computational approaches to understand the genetic basis of fitness, adaptation, connectivity, the spread of invasive species/pathogens, and the conservation of wild and domestic animals. He co-authored the book entitled
Monica Mwale
Monica Mwale competed her PhD at Rhodes University in Ichthyology and Fisheries Science. She currently serves as a research scientist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in the Foundational Biodiversity Sciences Department. Her main focus is in molecular systematics and genetics of wildlife including marine fishes, using genetic markers, DNA sequencing and morphological data to elucidate the diversity and phylogenetic relationships among species or populations. Monica also uses genetic technologies in conservation management and for DNA barcoding applications. She is a member of the Scientific authority of South Africa and the IUCN African Conservation Genetics Species Specialist Group.
Rena Schweizer
Rena Schweizer is a broadly-trained wildlife conservation geneticist. In her research, Rena integrates genomics, population genetics, bioinformatics, and physiology to evaluate the conservation status of wildlife populations and study evolution. During previous work, Rena has implemented a variety of approaches to understand genetic substructure and natural selection in gray wolves, high-altitude adaptation and ecophysiology in deer mice, and thermal acclimation in black-capped chickadees. Rena is currently a Research Entomologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service Pollinating Insects Research Unit, where she is working on conservation genomics of U.S. native bees.
Robin Waples
Robin Waples is an Affiliate Professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington and Emeritus Senior Scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. At NMFS, Robin led the Conservation Biology Division for a decade, conducting comprehensive reviews of the status of Pacific salmonids under the US federal Endangered Species Act. Research interests include: adapting standard population genetics theory so that it can be applied to real-world problems; combining diverse types of information (molecular genetics; life history; ecology) to characterize hierarchical levels of diversity in Pacific salmon; assessing the viability of complex conservation units that include multiple independent populations and diverse ecotypes; methods for analyzing gene flow and population structure; evolutionary consequences of anthropogenic changes to natural habitats; patterns of reproductive success across space and time; effects of age structure on calculation and estimation of effective population size.
Lisette Waits
Lisette Waits is a Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Resources at the University of Idaho. Lisette completed her PhD in Genetics at the Universiy of Utah. The Waits lab focuses on developing and implementing molecular genetic methods for monitoring wildlife populations and for addressing behavioral and ecological questions. Projects include: non-invasive genetic monitoring of gray wolves in Idaho, kit fox and coyotes in Utah, Sonoran pronghorn and coyotes in Arizona, pygmy rabbits in Washington, jaguars and other felids in Belize, Andean bears in Ecuador, brown bears in Italy, tigers in Nepal; environmental DNA analysis of amphibians, invertebrates, and fish from water systems; landscape genetic studies of bats and understory trees in a biological corridor in Costa Rica, wolverines in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, cougars in Idaho and Montana, amphibians in Idaho, rattlesnakes in Wyoming, bees in the Palouse prairie fragments of Moscow, Idaho; Red Wolf Hybridization in Manteo, North Carolina; Genetic monitoring of the predators of caribou in Newfoundland, Canada.