I am Stephen A. Smith, an evolutionary biologist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) at Duke University, and this site provides information on my research, projects, and various resources. My CV.
I am currently a postdoc at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) . I completed my dissertation in August of 2008 at Yale University in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept. under Michael Donoghue. I am a phylogenetic biologist and my current research includes:
- large-scale phylogenetic reconstruction automation and computational methods related to evolutionary biology
- large-scale biogeographic methods
- niche modeling and its use with phylogenies
- phylogenetics and biogeography of honeysuckles
Much of my research requires programming and I program with proficiency in C, C++, Java, and Python and those software projects and algorithms are presented here.
My scientific blog is linked here.
news
- 9/23/09 — article published in Proc Roy Soc B with J. Beaulieu — S. A. Smith and J. Beaulieu 2009. Life history influences rates of climatic niche evolution in flowering plants. pdf
- 8/31/09 — letter published in PNAS with B. O’Meara — S. A. Smith and B. C. O’Meara 2009. Morphogenera, monophyly, and macroevolution. pdf
- 7/13/09 — paper published in J. of Biogeography — S. A. Smith 2009. Taking into account phylogenetic and divergence-time uncertainty in a parametric biogeographical analysis of the Northern Hemisphere plant clade Caprifolieae. pdf
- 5/10/09 — awarded the John Spangler Nicholas prize for outstanding doctoral candidate at Yale University
- 4/9/09 — paper published in J. of Biogeography — Cellinese, N., S. A. Smith, E. J. Edwards, S. T. Kim, R. C. Haberle, M. Avramakis and M. J. Donoghue. 2009. Historical biogeography of the endemic Campanulaceae of Crete. Journal of Biogeography. link
- 3/12/09 — returned from teaching at the Applied Phylogenetics Course at Bodega Bay
- 2/26/09 — BMC paper listed as “Highly accessed”
- 2/13/09 — featured paper on BMC Evol Bio website link
- 2/11/09 — paper published in BMC Evol Bio — Smith, S. A., J. Beaulieu, and M. J. Donoghue. 2009. Mega-phylogeny approach for comparative biology: an alternative to supertree and supermatrix approaches. BMC Evol. Biol. link
- 2/9/09 — mentioned in Science Times in the New York Times link
- 1/19/09 — paper published in American Naturalist – Evans, M. E., S. A. Smith, R. E. Flynn and M. J. Donoghue. 2009. “Climate, niche evolution, and diversification of the “bird-cage” evening primroses (Oenothera, sections Anogra and Kleinia). American Naturalist. pdf
