Moi Exposito-Alonso is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar and Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he served as Principal Investigator and Carnegie Staff Associate at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Departments of Plant Biology and Global Ecology, as well as Assistant Professor by courtesy of Biology at Stanford University. His research centers on the genetic mechanisms driving adaptation or extinction of plant species in response to climate change. Using model organisms like Arabidopsis thaliana, the Exposito-Alonso lab integrates long-term evolutionary experiments at field sites worldwide with molecular biology, genomics, and computational modeling to uncover gene pathways for climate adaptation, the pace and predictability of rapid evolution, and the effects of climate and land-use changes on global genetic diversity and biodiversity patterns. Projects include the GrENE-net distributed experiment testing evolvability under diverse climates and AI-driven high-resolution mapping of plant distributions.

Exposito-Alonso obtained his B.S. in Biology from the Universities of Seville and Alicante, Spain in 2013, M.Sc. in Quantitative Genomics from the University of Edinburgh, UK in 2014, and Ph.D. in Eco-Evolutionary Genomics from the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology, Germany in 2018 under Detlef Weigel. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in statistical genetics at UC Berkeley with Rasmus Nielsen in 2019. His work has earned numerous honors, including the Tansley Medal for Excellence in Plant Science from New Phytologist in 2022, Early Career Faculty Award from the American Society of Plant Biology, NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, James F. Crow Early Career Award Finalist from the Genetic Society of America, Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science and Healthcare Europe, and Spanish Princess of Girona Prize. Notable publications comprise "Genetic diversity loss in the Anthropocene" (Science, 2022), "Natural selection on the Arabidopsis thaliana genome in present and future climates" (Nature, 2019), "Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana" (Nature, 2022), and "Genomic basis and evolutionary potential for extreme drought adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana" (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2018). He contributes to global efforts, including presentations at UN Convention on Biological Diversity meetings on genetic diversity targets.

Professional Email: moiexpositoalonso@berkeley.edu