Rate My Professor James Lewis

James Lewis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University, a position he has held since 2022. He earned a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University in 2017, an M.A. in Philosophy from Virginia Tech in 2010, and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Evansville in 2006. Prior to joining Clemson, Lewis completed postdoctoral fellowships in the Mank Lab at the University of British Columbia from 2021 to 2022 and the Danko Lab at Cornell University from 2017 to 2021. He teaches GEN 4100/4100H/6100 Population and Quantitative Genetics, addressing topics such as Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance, genetic variation, neutral evolution, coalescent theory, molecular evolution, quantitative trait models, phenotypic response to selection, population genetic models of selection, and the impact of linked selection on genomes, as well as GEN 4930 Senior Seminar, where senior undergraduates learn to read, critically evaluate, present, and discuss scientific literature.

Lewis's research focuses on population genetics and functional genomics of adaptive traits, utilizing large-scale functional and population genomic datasets, computational genomics, and CRISPR to uncover molecular mechanisms facilitating the evolution of the genotype-to-phenotype map and connect these to adaptive processes. His work centers on lepidopteran species groups, particularly Heliconius butterflies, to study wing pattern mimicry, cis-regulatory evolution, sex-biased gene expression, and how adaptive phenotypes are maintained despite maladaptive gene flow. Major funding includes the NSF CAREER award from 2024 to 2029 ($1,327,000) for investigating the functional genomic architecture and population differentiation of a polygenic and sexually dimorphic butterfly mimicry phenotype, and NIH 5P20GM146584 ($50,000, 2023-2024) on the genetic architecture of covariation in transcriptional response to heat stress and infection. Key publications feature 'RNA polymerase II dynamics shape enhancer–promoter interactions' in Nature Genetics (2023), 'High level of novelty under the hood of convergent evolution' in Science (2023), 'Deep regulatory homology and bifunctional architecture of the butterfly wing pattern groundplan' in Science (2022), and 'A butterfly pan-genome reveals a large amount of structural variation underlies the evolution of chromatin accessibility' in Genome Research (2022). Lewis has delivered seminars such as 'Evolution of wing pattern mimicry in heliconiine butterflies' at the University of Georgia (2024) and reviews manuscripts for journals including Nature Genetics, PNAS, and Molecular Biology and Evolution.