College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Evolution of a department

New department focuses initial resources to hiring evolutionary biologists.

Something was missing when the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology was formed from the previous botany, zoology and animal ecology departments.

The new department was one of two formed in the 2002 reorganization of the life sciences at Iowa State. Faculty from the old departments were put in a department where they would bring together natural research and teaching associations organized around levels of biological organization rather than around biological kingdoms.

"Our department is the department at Iowa State that is committed to scientific exploration of the full breadth of organismal diversity and the interactions of organisms with each other and with the environment," said Jonathan Wendel, professor and chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology.

But something was still missing.

"In terms of hiring faculty we felt it was important to cover a conceptual area while strengthening coverage of some groups of organisms we weren't very strong in," Wendel said. "We had few faculty whose scholarship expressly focused on evolutionary biology.

"The reorganization of the life sciences gave us the opportunity to make this change."

So much so that the life sciences reorganization plan emphasized the need to strengthen evolutionary biology. Increased hires were sought by the University, the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Agriculture, and the new department in this area.

Since then Wendel says the department has made tremendous strides.

Five new evolutionary biologists have been hired - three in LAS and two others in Agriculture. The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology is one of six dually administered departments between the two colleges.

"Evolutionary biology was singled out because in order to be an outstanding Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, we have to have these faculty members in our department," Wendel said.

The five new faculty members, all assistant professors, include:
Anne Bronikowski - Bronikowski studies the evolution of life history variation. She is working with a number of colleagues in developing semi-natural populations of a non-human primate as a model system for aging research. She is also continuing her work with life-history variation and senescent decline found in natural populations of garter snakes.
Dennis Lavrov - Lavrov's main research interests are in the evolution of major groups of animals, including sponges, and their genomes. He is particularly interested in comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes from diverse animal groups and in the use of gene order data for the analysis of ancient metazoan relationships.
Stephen Proulx - Proulx uses mathematical tools to study problems in evolutionary ecology. He says his goal is to reveal the underlying mechanisms that cause evolutionary change, recognizing that these changes occur against the backdrop of ecological dynamics.
Jeanne Serb - Serb is interested in the genetic and developmental mechanisms that drive diversification and evolution. Her research program focuses on three levels of evolutionaral change including organismal, genomic and developments. She is currently studying scallops.
Nicole Valenzuela - Valenzuela is interested in the evolution and ecology of sex-determining systems in vertebrates. Her research program ranges from studies of the ecological context to the genetic architecture that gave rise to and maintains alternative mechanisms of sex determination. Her current research looks at turtles and how their sex is determined.
Bronikowski, Lavrov and Valenzuela are faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, while Proulx and Serb are in the College of Agriculture.

Besides being each trained in evolutionary biology, the five also have other common denominators according to Wendel.

"All have animal backgrounds," Wendel said. "But when we conducted the faculty searches for these positions, we were focused on the quality of questions each was asking and the strength of the scientists. We weren't concerned with the organisms they were studying.

"We wanted to hire the best scientists period."

The new hires will allow the department to continue to change its curricular offerings. Wendel says new graduate-level courses will be added and integrated into a series of evolutionary courses.