The primary focus of my postdoctoral work is to understand how the genetics of the American white oak (Quercus alba) varies across its range, how gene flow from other co-occuring oak species might allow white oak to thrive in a wide variety of ecological contexts, and which parts of the genome are mostly likely involved in local adaption.

To do this, I am sequencing genomes of white oaks from populations across their range and using genomic methods to identify past natural selection and introgression with other species in the white oak clade.

Stay tuned, research papers documenting this work will be available soon!