People

My research is motivated the complex behaviors that drive many aspects of an organism’s natural history. I capitalize on genetic and neural technological opportunities of Drosophila to identify how behavior evolves at the level of genes and neurons and complement with field ecology to study how behavior evolves in the natural populations. My research program titrates across different evolutionary timescales—from rapid temporal evolution across seasonal time to local spatial adaptation within species to differences among species—to address the constraints and flexibility of the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying behavioral evolution.

In my free time I enjoy hiking, rowing, running, organic gardening, and baking, particularly cakes commemorating scientific accomplishments of lab members and colleagues.

Wallace’s curiosity, intelligence, and unbridled enthusiasm encapsulates the energy of the lab, even though this pandemic pup works full time from home. A science enthusiast, he has participated in research by the Canine Language Perception Lab at the University of Maryland and is a lifetime participant in the Dog Aging Project.

In his free time, Wallace enjoys hiking and swimming. He has an inordinate fondness for balls, sticks, bumpers, or anything that makes fetch happen.