Dr. Rees Kassen is Full Professor and University Research Chair in Experimental Evolution at the University of Ottawa and the author of Experimental Evolution and the Nature of Biodiversity, published by Roberts and Company.  In addition to his research, Rees has been active in science policy, having served as co-chair of the Global Young Academy, an international academy of early-career researchers based in Berlin and chair of the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering, an association of 26 professional and scientific organizations acting on behalf of over 50,000 members from academia, industry and government in Canada. Dr Kassen completed his PhD at McGill University and went on to an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship and Elizabeth Wordsworth Research Fellowship at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. He was an NSERC Steacie Fellow in 2010 and a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2010 and 2011.
Dr. Aaron Hinz​ (Research Associate)
Aaron studies the genetic and molecular mechanisms of adaptation.

​Dr. Felipe Dargent
​Felipe is an evolutionary ecologist interested in how evolution in complex communities influences adaptation. He is particularly interested in how host-parasite interactions change in the context of other species. Felipe’s work is currently funded through a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (NSERC).




​Dr. Sonal Shewaramani (Postdoctoral Researcher)
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Sonal is currently investigating the role of oxidative stress in the adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to the cystic fibrosis lung.
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  Partha Chakraborty (Ph.D. Student)

Partha is interested in the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance in a metapopulation network. He holds a Bachelor's and a Master's in Biochemistry from the University of Calcutta, India. Partha briefly worked on the evolution of dispersal in Drosophila at IISER Pune, and it sparked his interest in the role of gene flow in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance.
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Noah Houpt (Master's Student)

Noah is studying the effects of ecological diversity on adaptation to abiotic change in Pseudomonas. This research is aimed at understanding how natural diversity hotspots influence the maintenance of antimicrobial resistance in the wild. Noah comes to us from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, where he received a Honours B.Sc. in Integrated Science. 
Alex Hicks (Master's Student)

Alex is studying how genetic background influences the rate and outcome of diversification in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Alex graduated from Western University in 2020 with her Hons. BSc in Biology.
Caroline Des Ligneris (Undergraduate Student)

Caroline is going into her fourth year of her Hons. BSc in Biomedical Science at uOttawa. Caroline is assisting other lab members with ongoing experiments including working on metapopulation structure with Partha Chakraborty, and collecting data on the genomics of experimental evolution.
Catalina Claus (Undergraduate Student)

Catalina is a fourth year student in biology at uOttawa, specializing in ecology, evolution, and animal behaviour. She is a summer student assisting current graduate students with their projects as well as working on a science policy report at the World Economic Forum investigating global readiness to collaborate in scientific research.
Yara Nasrallah (Undergraduate Student)

Yara is an undergraduate student working alongside Aaron Hinz on site-directed mutagenesis. Yara is going into her second year of biomedical engineering at the University of British Columbia.

Lab Alumni

Susan Bailey - Postdoctoral Fellow, Aarhus University, Denmark
Lindsey Cameron-Dermann
Jonathan Dench
Jeremy Dettman
Roxanne Theresa Garaszczuk
Danna Gifford - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Susanne Kraemer - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Barbara Kubica 
Jean-Nicolas Jasmin - Postdoctoral Fellow, CNRS, Montpellier
Anita Melnyk
Justin Meyer - Assistant Professor, UC San Diego, USA
​Alexandra Ostaszewski
Gabriel Perron - Assistant Professor, Bard College, NY, USA
​Bridget Price-Roberts
Nicolas Rode - Agreenskins Fellow, INRA, Montpellier, France
Nicolas Rodrigue - Assistant Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada 
Alana Schick 
Sijmen Schoustra - Assistant Professor, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Gina Schroeder - Physician
Mariam Taha - Ph. D. Candidate, Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, Canada
Oleksiy Teselkin - Toronto, Ontario
Alex Wong - Assistant Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada