W. Bryan Jennings
General Information
Assistant Professor
Evolutionary Genomics and Conservation Genetics.
Phone: (707) 826-4167
Office: Science B 234
Email: wj3@humboldt.edu
Personal Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/~wj3/
Academic background
- BA University of California, Santa Barbara
- MS University of Texas at Arlington
- PhD University of Texas at Austin
- Post-Doctoral Fellow University of Washington
- Post-Doctoral Fellow Harvard University
Courses
- Genetics Lab (Fall)
- Molecular Biology and Genomics (Fall)
- Molecular Biology and Genomics Lab (Fall)
- Bioinformatics (Spring)
- Bioinformatics Lab (Spring)
- Biogeography (Spring)
Summary of research
My research takes an integrative approach to understanding the ecological and evolutionary basis of species radiations. By integrating ecological, phylogenetic, population genetic, and genomic approaches, I study extant populations to understand the timing, tempo, and mode of biodiversification. My research program focuses on diversification of birds and non-avian reptiles at multiple hierarchical levels. One study, which focused on Australian lizard diversity, used comparative methods to analyze speciation rates and historical biogeography of a major lizard clade. Another recent study was concerned with performing a microevolutionary study of Australian bird diversity exploiting new population genetic (coalescent) techniques to obtain improved estimates of phylogeny, speciation times, and ancestral effective population sizes. I also have general interests in ornithology, herpetology, and the conservation biology of desert tortoises.
Sample publications
- Jennings, W. B. and S. V. Edwards. 2005. Speciational history of Australian grass finches (Poephila) inferred from thirty gene trees. Evolution 59:2033-2047.
- Edwards, S. V., S. B. Kingan, J. D. Calkins, C. N. Balakrishnan, W. B. Jennings, W. J. Swanson, and M. D. Sorenson. 2005. Speciation in birds: genes, geography, and sexual selection. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences 102:6550-6557.
- Edwards, S. V., W. B. Jennings, and A. Shedlock. 2005. Phylogenetics of modern birds in the era of genomics. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 272: 979-992.
- Jennings, W. B. and Eric R. Pianka. 2004. Tempo and timing of the Australian Varanus radiation. In E. R. Pianka and D. R. King (Eds.), Varanoid Lizards of the World. Indiana University Press.
- Jennings, W. B., E. R. Pianka, and S. Donnellan. 2003. Systematics of lizards in the family Pygopodidae with implications for the diversification of Australian temperate biotas. Systematic Biology 52:757-780.
- Jennings, W. B. 2002. Diet selection by the desert tortoise in relation to the flowering phenology of ephemeral plants. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 4(2):353-358.
- Jennings, W. B. 2001. Comparative flowering phenology of plants in the western Mojave Desert. Madroņo 48:162-171.
Graduate students
Sean Reilly, "Estimating gene flow between Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus) populations"
Andrew Gottscho, "Landscape genetics of the Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard, Uma scoparia"