Mike Dawson

Professor Dawson’s lab focuses on elucidating the origins, maintenance, and loss of marine biodiversity, from molecular to ecosystem levels. He studies jellyfish, among other marine creatures, and he’s specifically interested in how molecular variation explains and causes differences between individuals, populations, species and higher taxa; and how the environment shapes and is shaped by genetic, organismal, population and community variation. His lab's work scales from micro- to macro-evolution and integrates biological and physical sciences. Topic areas include adaptation, ecological genetics and evolutionary ecology; population genetics, phylogeography, biogeography and phylogenetics; speciation, systematics and taxonomy; behavior and morphology; and climate change, invasive species and marine protected areas. Learn more about his work by visiting his website.