Rate My Professor John Kelly

John Kelly is a professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. He earned his PhD in ecology and evolution from the University of Chicago in 1996, with a dissertation titled "Kin selection in plants: theory and experiments with Impatiens capensis," advised by Michael Wade. Kelly's research specializes in evolutionary genetics, quantitative genetics, evolutionary theory, and kin selection. His work examines quantitative trait evolution in plant populations, particularly the monkeyflower Mimulus guttatus; molecular evolution; and evolution in viruses and other pathogens. Recognized as an international leader in evolutionary genetics, Kelly studies how organisms adapt to their environments. His contributions extend to agricultural selective breeding, organismal adaptation to climate change, and human genetics. He has developed advanced computational methods for genome sequencing to address core biological questions.

Kelly has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and obtained over $6 million in external funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and other agencies. Notable publications include Brown and Kelly (2020), "Severe inbreeding depression is predicted by the 'rare allele load' in Mimulus guttatus" in Evolution; Colicchio et al. (2020), "Individualized mating system estimation using genomic data" in Molecular Ecology Resources; Kelly and Hughes (2019), "Pervasive Linked Selection and Intermediate-Frequency Alleles Are Implicated in an Evolve-and-Resequencing Experiment of Drosophila simulans" in Genetics; Troth et al. (2018), "Selective tradeoffs maintain alleles underpinning complex trait variation in plants" in Science; and Monnahan and Kelly (2015), "Epistasis Is a Major Determinant of the Additive Genetic Variance in Mimulus Guttatus" in PLOS Genetics. Kelly served as secretary for the Society for the Study of Evolution. For his long-term research accomplishments, he received the 2022 Olin Petefish Award in Basic Sciences from the Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards and was named a 2025–26 KU Spotlight on Faculty Excellence honoree. His laboratory has mentored many graduate students and postdocs who advanced to prominent positions in academia and industry.