Thomas Powell

Thomas Powell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University, part of the SUNY system. His research focuses on the origin and maintenance of biodiversity, particularly the role of ecological adaptation in speciation and responses to environmental change. He integrates ecological processes, biogeography, physiology, genetics, and genomics to study insects and their parasitoids.

Education: PhD from the University of Notre Dame (200?), BS from Shepherd University. His work emphasizes the evolution of life history timing in insects, including how seasonal timing drives speciation and adapts to climate change. Recent projects include NSF-funded studies on coevolution of life history timing in insect communities under climate change.

Research highlights include studies on Rhagoletis flies, examining genetic divergence during speciation and adaptation to novel niches. Collaborations with Jeff Feder and others explore genomic mechanisms of ecological speciation. His lab's location on the Binghamton campus allows fieldwork in diverse ecosystems, including the Susquehanna River region.

Advising and grants: Hosted postdoc Alycia Lackey (now at Louisville) and mentored undergrad Alyssa Murray (now in Tufts' Dopman lab). Current grants include an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity award (2016) supporting coevolutionary studies across insect trophic levels.

Labs/Teams: Powell Lab, part of Biological Sciences, focuses on ecological and evolutionary genomics, with recent publications in PNAS, Evolution, and Journal of Evolutionary Biology. The lab emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, combining field experiments with genomic and transcriptomic analyses.