Biography:

Scott Edwards is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He has conducted fieldwork throughout the U.S., Australia and the Pacific region and has interests in many aspects of avian biology, including avian evolutionary history and phylogeography, comparative genomics, disease ecology and population genetics. He has served on the National Geographics Committee for Research and Exploration, the Comparative Genomics Working Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the NIH, the Senior Advisory Board of the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and is on the Board of Directors of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He oversees a program funded by the National Science Foundation to increase the diversity of undergraduates in evolutionary and biodiversity science.

Abstract:

Evolutionary Genomics of Birds: Co-evolution and Adaptation in a Changing World

The nearly 10,000 species of birds provide an excellent setting in which to study fundamental questions of the evolutionary process, adaptive radiation and DNA evolution. Birds live very fast-paced lives, and an understanding of the tempo of avian evolution comes both from acknowledging their dinosaurian ancestry as well as studying contemporary patterns of phylogeny and biogeography. Flight itself has left detectable signatures on many details of avian genetics, from rates of evolution in birds to the structure of their genes and chromosomes. Parasites and disease have also had a pervasive influence on avian plumage evolution and genetics, and the genomes of birds and their parasites bear the imprint of host-parasite interactions. By analyzing DNA sequence variation in the context of both historical and ecological events, we can paint a dynamic portrait both of the deep roots of the avian genealogical tree as well as of contemporary processes of ongoing adaptation.