Quantitative biology candidate presentation: 'The Genomic Basis of Adaptation and Speciation in House Mice' - Nov. 20, 2014

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2:30-4 p.m. UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

The Department of Biological Sciences has completed the search process for the position of assistant professor in quantitative biology and would like to invite you to a series of presentations given by the candidates to introduce you to their work and what they have to offer our institution.

The department is pleased to invite you to the first presentation given by Megan Phifer-Rixey, Ph.D., this Thursday, Nov. 20. Phifer-Rixey will be presenting her work involving the environmental adaptation and speciation of Mus musculus. Phifer-Rixey received her B.S. in biology from Duke University, and received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Megan is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, working out of the Nachman Lab at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology with the Department of Integrative Biology.

Phifer-Rixey has said about her work, "I am broadly interested in population genetics and adaptation. One of the questions I am most interested in is how species adapt to environmental variation. My current postdoctoral research is focused on environmental adaptation in house mice. House mice have spread all over the Americas since the arrival of European settlers. We would like to better understand the population genetics of this invasive species as well as the genetics of environmental adaptation. We have collected mice from all over the Americas and are currently using low coverage whole genome sequencing to characterize genetic variation. We are also starting new inbred lines from more extreme climates."

To learn more about Phifer-Rixey, please visit the Nachman Lab website.

November Archive