Rate My Professor Brian Verrelli

Brian Verrelli is a Professor in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he directs a research lab focused on evolutionary genetics. He earned his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in 2000 and his B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware in 1994. After completing his doctorate, Verrelli held an NSF-IGERT Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2001 to 2003 jointly at the University of Maryland and George Washington University. His academic interests center on population genetics and molecular evolution, employing molecular population genetic and genomic approaches to study natural populations. The Verrelli Lab examines evolutionary and ecological factors influencing patterns of population and species genetic variation, including gene flow, adaptation, and demography in urbanizing systems.

Throughout his career at Virginia Commonwealth University, Verrelli advanced from associate professor in the Center for Biological Data Science to full professor. He has contributed key insights into genetic adaptation amid urbanization, human evolutionary history, color vision variation, and commensal pest dynamics. Notable publications include "Signatures of Selection and Gene Conversion Associated with Human Color Vision Variation" (2004, American Journal of Human Genetics), "Evidence for Balancing Selection from Nucleotide Sequence Analyses of Human G6PD" (2002, American Journal of Human Genetics), "Urban hubs of connectivity: contrasting patterns of gene flow within and among cities in the western black widow spider" (2018, Proceedings of the Royal Society B), "Evolutionary Genetic Signatures of Selection on Bone-Related Variation within Human and Chimpanzee Populations" (2022, Genes), and "Were bed bugs the first urban pest insect? Genome-wide patterns of bed bug demography mirror global human expansion" (2025, Biology Letters). Verrelli co-authored influential perspectives such as "A roadmap for urban evolutionary ecology" and oversaw studies identifying trends in biological impacts of urbanization. In 2025, he received the National/International Recognition Award from VCU's College of Humanities and Sciences for his scholarly achievements. His research on bedbug evolution linked to human urbanization and black widow spider gene flow has advanced urban evolutionary ecology and appeared in media outlets.