Rate My Professor Marcella Baiz

Marcella Baiz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo. She received her BS in Biology from Grand Valley State University, followed by an MS and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan in 2019. Baiz completed four years of postdoctoral research at Penn State University before joining the University at Buffalo faculty. Her research centers on the evolutionary processes driving speciation, employing natural hybrid zones and young species radiations to investigate mechanisms of reproductive isolation, environmental adaptation of populations, and the influence of symbiotic communities such as microbiomes on host diversification. The Baiz Lab utilizes genomic techniques to associate specific gene regions with phenotypes and examines host-associated microbiomes, with a focus on passerine birds including wood-warblers. Studies explore hybridization, plumage pigmentation linked to carotenoid genes and gut microbiomes, and ecological divergence.

Baiz has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Key works include 'Gut microbiome composition better reflects host phylogeny than diet diversity in breeding wood-warblers' (Molecular Ecology, 2023), 'Pigmentation genes show evidence of repeated divergence and multiple bouts of introgression in Setophaga warblers' (Current Biology, 2021), 'Rare hybrid may solve ‘genetic problem’ of linked plumage traits' (Ecology, 2021), 'X-linked signature of reproductive isolation is mirrored in a howler monkey hybrid zone' (Journal of Heredity, 2020), and 'Multiple forms of selection shape reproductive isolation in a primate hybrid zone' (Molecular Ecology, 2019). Additional publications cover genomic and plumage variation in Vermivora hybrids (The Auk, 2020), intragroup genetic relatedness in howler monkeys (American Journal of Primatology, 2015), and hybridization insights from various organisms (Evolutionary Anthropology, 2019). She serves on departmental committees and as a Faculty Senate senator representing the College of Arts and Sciences. Baiz's scholarship, cited over 400 times, advances understanding of speciation, hybridization, evolutionary genomics, and ornithology.