Rate My Professor Kevin Emerson

Research in the Emerson Lab examines how environmental cues interact with the genome to regulate developmental and physiological processes, and how evolutionary changes in these interactions facilitate organismal adaptation across temperate zone environments. Specializing in evolutionary genetics, genomics, and computational biology, Emerson integrates modern molecular methods with physiological, evolutionary, and ecological perspectives, frequently focusing on insects like mosquitoes and ticks. His key publications include 'Minimal genetic differentiation of the malaria vector Nyssorhynchus darlingi associated with forest cover level in Amazonian Brazil' (PLoS ONE, 2019, co-authored with C. Prussing and others), 'Evidence for family-level variation of phenotypic traits in response to larval food quality in the mosquito Aedes albopictus' (Parasites & Vectors, 2020, co-authored with V.M. Chu and others), 'Cytonuclear Epistasis Controls the Density of Symbiont Wolbachia in Nasonia vitripennis' (G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 2017, with R.L. Glaser), 'Brazilian Anopheles darlingi Root (Diptera: Culicidae) Populations: Genetic Structure, Population Relationships, and Population History' (PLoS ONE, 2015, co-authored with J.E. Conn and others), and 'StrAuto: automation and parallelization of STRUCTURE analysis' (PeerJ, 2017). These works advance knowledge of genetic diversity, phylogeography, and evolutionary processes in disease vectors, contributing to fields like vector biology and ecological genetics.