I am a postdoc at the Florida Museum of Natural History. My research broadly uses phylogenies and other biodiversity data to answer evolutionary and ecological questions in a number of areas.

Evolution of nitrogen-fixing symbioses: I am involved in work using phylogenetic approaches and natural history data to elucidate the origins and phenotypic-ecological associates of multiple origins of nitrogen-fixing symbioses in the nodulating clade (>30,000 species, Fabales + Rosales + Cucurbitales + Fagales). For more information see the NitFix project website: nitfix.org

Ancestral niche space: I am interested in developing new methods for using niche models with phylogenetic and phenotypic information to answer questions about niche shifts in a quantitative framework. I am currently developing a large phylogenomic supermatrix and niche and trait data to cover more than half of the angiosperm order Saxifragales. This will be one of the best-sampled flowering plant clades.

Hybridization: My PhD research organism is a model system for ancient hybridization, and still stands as one of the most prolific examples of historical introgression. I am using phylogenomic information and recently developed analytic approaches to detect these patterns of introgression and rigorously falsify alternative explanations for differing genome histories.