Michelle McMahon

Mirchele McMahon is an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona, affiliated with the Department of Plant Sciences within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on biodiversity, evolutionary biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and systems biology. She is also associated with the UA Herbarium and the Desert Legume Program, contributing to plant biodiversity studies.

Teaching responsibilities include courses such as PLS 307: Origins of Food Plants, PLS 477/577: Applied Plant Biodiversity, PLS 170C1: Plants and Our World, and PLS 472/572: Plant Systematics. Her work integrates phylogenetic analysis, genomic data, and computational methods to address questions in plant evolution and systematics.

Research interests encompass genomic architecture of cacti, phylogenomic methodology, and the evolution of plant traits such as extrafloral nectaries. McMahon’s publications explore topics like gene tree discordance, plastid genome reduction, and bioinformatics tools for comparative biology.

Her lab affiliations emphasize plant biodiversity and legume systematics. No specific awards or student advisement records are documented in the provided texts.