L. Lacey Knowles

L. Lacey Knowles, the Robert B. Payne Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan and Curator of Insects at the Museum of Zoology, is a leading evolutionary biologist whose research spans speciation, phylogeography, and climate change impacts on biodiversity. She is affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Zoology’s Insect Division.

• Ph.D., Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1999

Her work integrates genomic data with ecological modeling to study species divergence and hybridization mechanisms, particularly in grasshoppers and Amazonian ecosystems. Recent publications in PNAS and Nature Reviews Biodiversity highlight hybrid zone dynamics and riverine biodiversity evolution.

Scientific Awards: Elected as an AAAS Fellow in recognition of her contributions to speciation research and biodiversity conservation.

• Current Graduate Students: Rachel Wadleigh
• Alumni include Giorgia Auerteri (Assist. Prof., Missouri State), Tristan McKnight (Assist. Prof. of Practice, Arizona), Carlos Muñoz Ramírez (FONDECYT Fellow), and others now at institutions like Purdue, Duke, and Academia Sinica.

Her lab emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, methodological development, and partnerships with Indigenous communities to address climate change threats to ecosystems.