I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at the University of California, Davis.

My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis. My lab is in the new U. C. Davis Genome Center and I have appointments in the Section on Evolution and Ecology and the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. I earned my PhD from Stanford University and my undergraduate degree from Harvard College.

I am a co-author of a new textbook, entitled Evolution from Cold Spring Harbor Press. I am also the Academic Editor in Chief of PLoS Biology and an avid advocate for Open Access publishing.

I am cross-posting to here articles from my Blogspot blog Tree Of Life.