Research Interests
My research focuses on the physiological, biochemical, molecular, and endocrine bases of adaptation. Since graduate school I have been working on two interrelated problems: (1) the evolution of the endocrine regulation of development and reproduction in insects, and (2) the physiological, biochemical, and endocrine bases of life history evolution, especially lipid metabolism and life-history trade-offs. A new research focus is the microevolution of circadian rhythms. This research has largely been undertaken in wing-polymorphic crickets of the genus Gryllus, and has resulted in the first detailed syntheses of evolutionary genetics, endocrinology, life history evolution, and metabolic biochemistry. My research has been supported continuously by NSF during the past 18 years, with multiple concurrent grants from the same or different panels during this entire period. The hallmarks of this research are its highly interdisciplinary, integrative nature, and its focus on the details of variation in proximate mechanisms that underlie adaptation.