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. Jeremy Dettman (Research Associate)

Jeremy studies the evolutionary genomics of bacteria and fungi.

Dr. Aaron Hinz (Research Associate)
Aaron studies the genetic and molecular mechanisms of adaptation.

Anita Melnyk (Ph.D. Candidate)

Anita uses experimental evolution of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to examine the acquisition and maintenance of antibiotic resistance at both the phenotypic and genetic level.

Alana Schick (Ph.D. Candidate)

Alana studies the genetics of adaptive evolution in Pseudomonads.

Jonathan Dench – I'm currently working on in silico detection methods for detecting epistasis while also pairing our predictions with in vitro validation.  My research interests focus on categorising factors which dispose evolutionary walks.  I consider neutral or nearly neutral changes to be of particular interest since these are the most fertile evolutionary playgrounds.  Concepts such as standing genetic variation, genetic linkages, and phenotypic plasticity form what I consider an organisms' pre-adaptive potential.  Inspired by Gould I'm also interested in the repeatability of evolution and am excited to begin improving the modelling of evolutionary outcomes as a stochastic process.  This will require identifying key factors, the conditions under which they are relevant, and the strengths thereof.

---

Lindsey Cameron -Dermann (4th year Honours Student)

Lindsey is studying compensatory evolution using antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Alexandra Ostaszewski (4th year Honours Student)

Alexandra is studying the evolution of resistance to oxidative stresses in aerobic and anaerobic environments using clinical and environmental strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Lab Alumni

Gabriel Perron - Assistant Professor, Bard College, NY, USA
Nicolas Rode - Agreenskins Fellow, INRA, Montpellier, France
Susanne Kraemer - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Oleksiy Teselkin - Toronto, Ontario
Susan Bailey - Postdoctoral Fellow, Aarhus University, Denmark
Barbara Kubica - Ph.D. Candidate, University of Calgary
Mariam Taha - Ph. D. Candidate, Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, Canada
Alex Wong - Assistant Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Sijmen Schoustra - Assistant Professor, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Nicolas Rodrigue - Assistant Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Danna Gifford - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Gina Schroeder, Physician
Justin Meyer - Assistant Professor, UC San Diego, USA
Jean-Nicolas Jasmin - Postdoctoral Fellow, CNRS, Montpellier