Biography
Wade Roberts is an evolutionary biologist interested in how plants and algae evolve, diversify, and adapt to their environments. He grew up in rural north-central Washington and is a proud first-generation college graduate. He earned a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Art from Whitworth University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Sciences from Washington State University, where he studied the evolutionary genomics of flower diversification.
After completing his Ph.D., Roberts joined the University of Arkansas as a postdoctoral researcher, expanding his research into the genomics, ecology, and evolution of diatoms. He joined the Biology Department at the University of 抖阴视频黄片 in 2026, where he is developing an undergraduate-focused research program that integrates field biology, molecular biology, genomics, and computational approaches to investigate evolution and biodiversity.
Research Interests
My research focuses on plant and algal evolutionary genomics, with an emphasis on understanding how organisms adapt to their environments and how genomic variation contributes to adaptation and diversification. I take an integrative approach that combines fieldwork and natural history collections, microscopy, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, data science, and programming. This allows me to study biological questions from multiple perspectives, connecting observations of organisms in nature with molecular and genomic data. I enjoy working across these areas and involving students in the full process of biological research鈥攆rom collecting and identifying organisms to generating, analyzing, and interpreting genomic data.
- Plant evolutionary genomics and systematics
- Phylogenomics and comparative genomics
- Genome evolution and adaptation
- Diatom evolution and ecology
- Diatom-microbe interactions
Links
Educational Background
Ph.D., Molecular Plant Sciences, Washington State University, 2018
B.S., Biology, Whitworth University, 2012
B.A., Art, Whitworth University, 2012