Rate My Professor Robert Unckless

Robert Unckless is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Kansas, where he joined as an assistant professor in 2016 and was promoted with tenure in 2021. He serves as Director of the KU Center for Genomics since 2021 and holds affiliate appointments in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Computational Biology. Recognized as an Edward and Thelma Wohlgemuth Faculty Scholar, Unckless earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Rochester in 2011 under advisors John Jaenike and H. Allen Orr, an M.S. in Biology from the same institution in 2008, and an additional M.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Brockport in 2005. He holds earlier degrees in science education from Cornell University: an M.S. in 1999 and a B.S. in 1997. Following his undergraduate studies, he taught high school science for seven years in Massachusetts and New York before pursuing graduate research. His postdoctoral training from 2011 to 2016 was at Cornell University with Brian Lazzaro and Andrew Clark, focusing on evolutionary genomics.

Unckless's research program investigates the evolutionary genomics of genetic conflict at intergenomic (host-pathogen) and intragenomic levels using Drosophila models. Key areas include the evolution of antimicrobial peptides under balancing selection, coevolution with viruses such as the Drosophila innubila Nudivirus, bacterial and fungal pathogen interactions, and sex-ratio meiotic drive systems in species like Drosophila affinis. His lab integrates genomics, genetics, computational biology, microbiology, and biochemistry. Highly cited works include 'Adaptation via symbiosis: recent spread of a Drosophila defensive symbiont' (Science, 2010), co-authored with J. Jaenike et al., garnering over 640 citations; 'The ecology and evolutionary dynamics of meiotic drive' (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2016); 'Evolution of resistance against CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive' (Genetics, 2017); and recent publications such as 'A suite of selective pressures supports the maintenance of alleles of a Drosophila immune peptide' (eLife, 2025) and 'A single amino acid polymorphism in natural Metchnikowin alleles of Drosophila results in systemic immunity and life history tradeoffs' (PLoS Genetics, 2024). Unckless received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2021 for studies on meiotic drive genetics, along with multiple NSF and NIH grants totaling millions. He contributes through service as an award judge, conference organizer, and Genetics Society of America Editors’ Choice recognitions in 2018 and 2020.