As evolutionary biologists focused on plant systems, my students and I are actively engaged in researching the evolutionary relationships among taxa, patterns of speciation and diversification, and the development of informative classifications.
Over the last ten years these interests have focused increasingly on homoploid and polyploid plant hybridization as important forms of plant-plant and plant-human evolutionary interactions in both wild and semi-domesticated plant species.
The variety of topics researched in my lab are selected to engage graduate and undergraduate students in aspects of molecular biology, integrative evolutionary biology, and plant taxonomy, with primary focus on members of the mustard and legume plant families (Brassicaceae and Fabaceae). These systems include numerous western US and Mexican representatives, important semi-domesticated crop species, and endangered species that provide well-rounded projects involving studies derived from fieldwork, molecular biology, and morphology.
