about

I am Stephen A. Smith, an evolutionary biologist and postdoctoral researcher at Brown University currently working with Casey Dunn and Alexandros Stamatakis. This site provides information on my research, projects, and various resources. My CV and ResearcherID. I have deep roots in biology and computer science and my research focuses on the evolution of diversity, where I primarily examine the rates and geographic context of evolution.  I just moved from a postdoc at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and 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: 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. news
  • 4/29/10 -- article published in Science with a bunch of collaborators - The origins of C4 grasslands: integrating evolutionary and ecosystem science pdf
  • 3/16/10 -- article published in PNAS with Jeremy Beaulieu and Michael Donoghue - An uncorrelated relaxed-clock analysis suggests an earlier origin for flowering plants pdf
  • 3/1/10 -- article "The Botanist Hacker" published in the magazine The Scientist with corresponding YouTube video
  • 2/9/10 -- article published in PNAS with Erika Edwards - Phylogenetic analyses reveal the shady history of C4 grasses pdf
  • 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