Plotkin Research Group

We use mathematics and computation to study questions in evolutionary biology and ecology. Research in the group is concerned primarily with adaptation in populations. Related interests include the evolution of robustness and adaptability, the evolutionary ecology of viral populations, the evolution of cooperation, conflict, coalitions, and group decision-making. Evolutionary population genetics We are broadly interested in molecular evolution and population-genetic theory. A primary goal is the development of statistical methods for inferring the action of natural selection from intra-specific polymorphism data and from inter-specific sequence variation. Of particular interest are methods to infer the distribution of selection pressures across sites, the recombination rate amoung sites, and the structure of epistatic interactions among sites. Robustness and Adaptation How do organisms ensure robustness against genetic and environmental perturbations? How do organisms simultaneously ac

We use mathematics and computation to study questions in evolutionary biology and ecology. Research in the group is concerned primarily with adaptation in populations. Related interests include the evolution of robustness and adaptability, the evolutionary ecology of viral populations, the evolution of cooperation, conflict, coalitions, and group decision-making. Evolutionary population genetics We are broadly interested in molecular evolution and population-genetic theory. A primary goal is the development of statistical methods for inferring the action of natural selection from intra-specifi