Adriana D. Briscoe

Biosketch

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe, PhD is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Briscoe grew up in Colton, California. She received a BA in Philosophy, a BS in Biological Sciences, and an MA in Philosophy from Stanford University, and a PhD in Biology from Harvard University. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Entomological Society. She has been an Overseas Visiting Scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge, U.K. Awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science and an IDEA Award from the American Society of Naturalists/Society for the Study of Evolution/Society of Systematic Biologists.

Research Interests

Dr. Briscoe's research seeks to understand the molecular, physiological, ecological, and evolutionary mechanisms underlying color vision behavior in butterflies. These studies involve the identification, characterization, and localization of photoreceptor proteins in the eyes of non-model systems, and have led to the discovery of a sex-linked UV opsin gene. The genomic mechanisms by which genes duplicate and become sex-limited is currently under study. Color vision mediates ecological interactions between butterflies, host plants, predators, and the environment in the context of mimicry and species recognition and is shaped by the action of both natural and sexual selection.