Members of our lab’s research community explore the biological diversity of birds and other organisms. We seek a better understanding of the processes that underlie the diversification and differentiation of populations and species, we generate improved reconstructions of their evolutionary histories, we conduct novel comparative and experimental tests of ecological and behavioral adaptations, and we inform scientific and public audiences about real-world issues relating to diversity and conservation genetics.
All of the members of our lab group engage in multidisciplinary studies of wild organisms. Birds are usually the primary focus of most of our studies, but some of our projects have also involved various groups of lizards, fishes, insects, and pathogens. At present, our primary research endeavors share a common theme of using novel and very powerful next-generation genomic tools to address long-standing questions about avian evolution, ecology, behavior, and/or conservation. Our lab group is fortunate to have close ties with Cornell’s world-class network of evolutionary biologists, computational genomics experts, and biostatisticians in areas ranging from comparative genomics to species distribution modeling.
Our lab group—comprised of undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, research staff, and faculty—forms the core of the Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program (which welcomes and supports many additional individuals from other labs both within and outside of Cornell) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, while our academic home is within Cornell’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Many of us also have ties to Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and/or the Department of Natural Resources. Our molecular lab is literally surrounded by the research collections of the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates, which include more than 2 million traditional specimens and a robust genomic resources collection. Members of our group also often participate in the many interdisciplinary and cross-departmental activities offered by the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics (3CPG) and the Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics.
Click here for information on how to get to our location at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Mailing address:
Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850 (USA)
Dr. Irby Lovette (Lab group faculty director):
phone: (607) 254-2140
email: irbylovette@cornell.edu
Dr. Bronwyn Butcher (Lab Manager):
phone: (607) 254-2141
email: bgb27@cornell.edu
For other lab group member contact information, please see the People pages.