Current Position

• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Ochman/Moran Lab
  Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
• Email: chkuo {at} email {dot} arizona {dot} edu

Education

• PhD (2008), Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
  Advised by Dr. Daniel Promislow and Dr. Jessica Kissinger.
• MS (2003), Interdepartmental Genetics Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
  Advised by Dr. Fredric Janzen.
• BS (1998), Department of Botany, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Research

My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary processes that act on genes and genomes. I use microorganisms as my main study system because: 1) they are the most genetically and ecologically diverse organisms on Earth; 2) they are the most important components of our biotic environment and influence almost every aspect of human life; and 3) they have abundant genomic information available for examining the genetic basis of diversification. With a particular interest in pathogens, I combine genomic, computational, and mathematical approaches to investigate the evolutionary forces that generate and maintain biological diversity. For more details about my research projects, please see my publications.

Family

My wife Ann Cheng (陳安) and I have three children: Alyssa (郭維莘, born in 2002), Vivian (郭維真, born in 2004), and David (郭維仁, born in 2006). Lots of photos can be found in our family website. My Chinese name is 郭志鴻.