Dr. Bergey will be accepting applications for Doctoral students who wish to enter the Human Evolutionary Science Program in Fall 2020.
(PhD NYU, 2015; Assistant Professor, Genetics, SAS) Human and non-human primate evolutionary genetics, hunter-gatherers, adaptation, hybridization, malaria and vector biology; Uganda.
lab website is http://www.bergey-lab.org/
Research in my lab aims to understand how organisms adapt to their environment with a focus on the evolution of complex, polygenic traits. We use population, evolutionary, and functional genomic approaches to understand the effects of past selection on modern medically-relevant phenotypes, testing evolutionary hypotheses in humans, non-human primates, and disease vectors. More broadly, we aim to understand how ecological, behavioral, cultural, or anthropogenic factors impact adaptive evolution. Current major projects include an investigation of human adaptations to life in the rainforests of Africa, including the evolution of small body size (the “pygmy” phenotype) in rainforest hunter-gatherers.