Dr. Cortland Griswold
Assistant Professor
Email:cgriswol@uoguelph.ca
Office: SCIE 1474
Ext: 56240
Lab: 1409/10
Ext: 56014
Profile | Education | Research | Publications | Teaching | Grad Students | Links |
Profile
I am an evolutionary biologist whose research focuses on theoretical and inference questions. My interest in evolutionary theory and inference began the second term of my third year as an undergraduate. I attended a series of lectures that introduced the theory of population genetics and demonstrated how ecological processes bring about changes in allele frequencies, i.e. genetic evolution by natural selection. At the time I had very broad interests in biology, participating in research on vocal communication in birds and ecological physiology in plants. I continued pursuing my interest in understanding the evolution of bird vocalizations as an M.Sc. student and this work heightened again my interest in using theory and population genetics principles to help us understand ourselves and the natural world around us. I then pursued a Ph.D. in the area of theoretical population and evolutionary genetics.
Education
B.Sc. – University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.Sc. – University of Toronto
Ph.D. – University of British Columbia
Research
My research focuses on the development of models of multivariate trait evolution. I am particularly interested in determining how gene-genealogical structure and the history of mutation affects multivariate trait evolution within a population. Complementary to this genealogical work, I am developing models of multivariate traits from underlying biophysical models. The biophysical work is focused on multivariate traits that are determined, in part, by calcium signaling.
For more information about my lab, visit the Griswold Lab
Selected Publications
Griswold, C.K. and J. Masel. 2009. Complex adaptations can drive the evolution of the capacitor [PSI+], even with realistic rates of yeast sex. PLoS Genetics 5(6): e1000517.
Masel, J. and C.K. Griswold. 2009. The strength of selection against the yeast prion [PSI+]. Genetics 181: 1057-1063.
Griswold, C.K, Gomulkiewicz R., and N. Heckman. 2008. Hypothesis testing in comparative and experimental studies of function-valued traits. Evolution 62: 1229-1242.
Griswold, C.K., Logsdon, B., and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2007. Neutral evolution of multiple quantitative characters: A genealogical approach. Genetics 176: 455-466.
Griswold, C.K. 2007. The relationship between the pleiotropic phenotypic effects of a mutation fixed by selection. Heredity 98: 232-242.
Griswold, C.K. 2006. Gene flow’s effect on the genetic architecture of a local adaptation and its consequences for QTL analysis. Heredity 96: 445 – 453.
Griswold, C.K. 2006. Pleiotropic mutation, modularity and evolvability. Evolution & Development 8: 81 – 93.
Griswold, C.K. and M.C. Whitlock. 2003. The genetics of adaptation: The roles of pleiotropy, stabilizing selection and drift in shaping the distribution of bidirectional fixed mutational effects. Genetics 165: 2181-2192.
Whitlock, M.C., Griswold, C.K. and A.D. Peters. 2003. Compensating for the meltdown: The critical effective size of a population with deleterious and compensatory mutations. Annales Zoologici Fennici 40(2): 169-183.
Griswold, C.K. and A.J. Baker. 2002. Time to most recent common ancestor and divergence times of populations of common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) in Europe and North Africa: Insights into Pleistocene refugia and current levels of migration. Evolution 56(1): 143-153.
Teaching
Undergraduates interested in independent study under my supervision or part-time work are encouraged to contact me.
Grad Students
Students interested in addressing questions in evolutionary biology from a theoretical or mix of theoretical and empirical perspectives are encouraged to contact me via email.
Links