معرفی
Rachel Moran is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, leading the Moran Lab. She specializes in evolutionary biology, integrating behavioral research with genomic technologies to study species diversification. Her work focuses on North American stream fishes like darters and Mexican tetras, exploring how behavioral interactions and genomic architecture drive speciation. Key research themes include character displacement's role in trait divergence, genomic features enabling reproductive barriers, and the genetic basis of convergent evolution in cavefish.
Educational Background:
- B.Sc. in Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University (2011)
- M.Sc. in Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University (2013)
- Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2019)
- Postdoctoral Research, University of Minnesota (2019–2022)
- Chicago Fellow, University of Chicago (2022)
Research Interests: The lab investigates how interspecific interactions (mating, fighting) drive phenotypic and molecular divergence, genomic architecture of reproductive barriers, and repeatable evolution in cavefish. Recent projects include neurogenomic mechanisms of species discrimination and cave adaptation's ecological genomics.
Publications: Her work spans molecular evolution, hybridization, and trait loss in cavefish. Notable contributions include studies on genomic bases of eye loss and sleep regulation, as well as parallel evolution in Mexican tetras.
Labs/Teams: The Moran Lab at Texas A&M employs experimental and computational approaches to address major evolutionary questions, with a focus on aquatic systems.
