Patrick M. O'Grady, Professor
Patrick O'Grady received his B.S. in Biology from Clarkson University (1993) and conducted his doctoral research with Dr. Margaret Kidwell at the University of Arizona where he received his PhD in Genetics (1998). He was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Rob DeSalle at the American Museum of Natural History (1998-2003). Patrick has been a faculty member at the University of Vermont (2003-2005) and the University of California at Berkeley (2005-2017). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University (2017-present) and Director of the National Drosophila Species Stock Center.
Dr. O'Grady's research focuses understanding the patterns and processes that generate and maintain biological diversity. Research projects in his laboratory cover a range of biological disciplines including morphology and taxonomy, phylogenetic systematics, population genetics, molecular evolution and genomics to examine the evolutionary history of endemic Hawaiian Insects, particularly flies in the family Drosophilidae. The National Science Foundation, the United States Forest Service and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have provided funding for his research. He has authored over 100 papers, described 80 species, and has three taxa named after him, a fruit fly (Drosophilidae: Drosophila), a leaf hopper (Cicadellidae: Nesophrosyne) and a long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae: Campsicnemus).
Dr. O'Grady's research focuses understanding the patterns and processes that generate and maintain biological diversity. Research projects in his laboratory cover a range of biological disciplines including morphology and taxonomy, phylogenetic systematics, population genetics, molecular evolution and genomics to examine the evolutionary history of endemic Hawaiian Insects, particularly flies in the family Drosophilidae. The National Science Foundation, the United States Forest Service and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have provided funding for his research. He has authored over 100 papers, described 80 species, and has three taxa named after him, a fruit fly (Drosophilidae: Drosophila), a leaf hopper (Cicadellidae: Nesophrosyne) and a long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae: Campsicnemus).
Lidane Noronha, PhD Candidate
Lidane received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Diego where she was first introduced to the National Drosophila Species Stock Center. Her current role in the center’s new location includes overseeing the day-to-day operations such as maintenance and additions to the collection, keeping all social media accounts up to date, hiring and managing student workers, and ensuring all species in the center are available to research labs at any time.
Maddie Worth, PhD Candidate
I am a PhD candidate in the O'Grady lab, co-advised by Dr. Jason Dombroskie. I am studying crane flies in the family Limoniidae, with a focus on the evolution of lengthened mouthparts and floral interactions of nectarivorous limoniids. I am also studying the phylogenetic relationships of crane flies in the subfamily Limoniinae, using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment methods to create the first molecular phylogeny of the subfamily. My field work occurs in Costa Rica, where limoniids are extremely abundant and greatly undersampled, with the goal of documenting and describing new species, along with collecting specimens for phylogenetic analyses.
 Paceyn collecting ephydrids and canacids, Ft. Bragg, CA, February 2011. |
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