Joy M. Bergelson
New York University
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Primary Section: 25, Plant Biology Secondary Section: 27, Evolutionary Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2018)
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Biosketch
Joy Bergelson’s laboratory is best known for dispelling the long-held belief that arms race dynamics typify the evolution of plant resistance to microbial pathogens in nature. An early researcher in the ecology and evolution of Arabidopsis thaliana, Bergelson’s group introduced the use of genetically manipulated plants to disentangle mechanisms driving evolutionary dynamics and helped forge research at the interface of ecological and evolutionary genetics. Bergelson was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Metuchen, NJ. She graduated from Brown University in 1984 with a degree in Biology and then won a Marshall Fellowship to obtain an MPhil from the University of York, UK, followed by a PhD in 1990 from the University of Washington. Bergelson was a Demonstrator in Ecology at Oxford University and, in 1992, began a faculty position at Washington University in St. Louis. She moved to The University of Chicago in 1994, where she is currently the James D Watson professor and Chair of its Department of Ecology and Evolution. Bergelson received a Packard Fellowship, Presidential Faculty fellowship and Cheung Kong Scholar Honorary Professorship for her work and has served as the AAAS Biology Section Chair in Biology. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
I have always been intrigued with the intricate balanced that allows hosts and pathogens to persist, often for millions of years. Research in my laboratory is best known for dispelling the long-held belief that arms-race dynamics typify the evolution of plant resistance to microbial pathogens in nature. As an early researcher on the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, particularly from an evolutionary and ecological perspective, my group completed the first experiments using genetically manipulated plants to disentangle the mechanisms driving observed evolutionary dynamics. We have also pioneered research at the interface of ecology and evolution, namely eco-evolutionary dynamics. Through our international collaborations, we have devoted substantial energy towards developing genome-wide association mapping in Arabidopsis, providing resources to the community and ultimately leading to the 1001 Genomes project. Our current work builds on these studies to explore signatures of community level selection and to unravel the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying them.
