Katrin Schmidt has finished her Ph.D. and crossed the Atlantic to join Team Chlamy at Georgia Tech. Technically, she’s a Research Scientist until her paperwork clears, but she has defended her dissertation on thermal adaptation mechanisms in the model diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana at the University of East Anglia.
My new article “Fitness and individuality in complex life cycles” is available as “Just accepted” at Philosophy of Science. I presented an early version of this paper in a symposium organized by Maureen O’Malley, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and James Griesemer at the Philosophy of Science Association Meeting in Chicago two years ago.
I gave a keynote address on “Development and evolution of Volvox and related algae” at the Phycomorph Second Working Group Meeting in Limassol, Cyprus on September 30th. Phycomorph is a European research group concerned with macroalgal reproduction and development. I had a great time and learned a ton about development in brown, red, and ulvophyte green algae.
I primarily study various aspects of the evolutionary origins of multicellularity through a combination of experimental, theoretical, and comparative approaches. My main model systems are the volvocine algae (Volvox and kin) and their close unicellular relative, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
I am currently serving as a Program Director in the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology. Anything I post here or on social media reflects only my personal views and does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or the United States.
