L. Lacey Knowles is an
ecologist
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...
and
evolutionary biologist
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biol ...
known for her work with
speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
,
sexual selection
Sexual selection is a mechanism of evolution in which members of one sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex ...
,
phylogeography
Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...
, and
evolutionary radiation
An evolutionary radiation is an increase in taxonomic diversity that is caused by elevated rates of speciation, that may or may not be associated with an increase in morphological disparity. A significantly large and diverse radiation within ...
.
Career
Knowles is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist known for her work with speciation, sexual selection, phylogeography, and evolutionary radiation.
Knowles received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
and had a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
.
As of 2012, she is a professor at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
and the curator of insects at the university's museum of zoology. She has been an elected member of the councils for the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Society of Systematic Biology.
Knowles has also served as an associate editor of scientific journals such as
Evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
, Molecular Ecology, Systematic Biology, and Heredity.
She is the author of ''Estimating Species Trees: Practical and Theoretical Aspects''.
Awards
* In 2023, Knowles was elected a
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knowles, Lacey
Living people
American ecologists
American women ecologists
University of Michigan faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science