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).
Kyla O'Hearn, PhD Candidate
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I am a broadly trained entomologist interested in insect taxonomy and identification. The diversity and complexity of Hawaiian Drosophila provide an excellent subject to improve my knowledge in various morphological and genetic techniques. I hope to narrow my focus on this impressive radiation of flies during my graduate studies at Cornell.
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Augusto Rampasso, PhD Candidate
I have been studying Neotropical Drosophilidae ecology (breeding sites and geographical distribution), species identification (based on external morphology and male terminalia analysis) and taxonomy, as well as evolution in a Neartic Drosophila species. My research interests are speciation, ecology, taxonomy, and phylogenetics, and Hawaiian Drosophilidae will be an outstanding model for my studies.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Augusto_Santos_Rampasso
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Augusto_Santos_Rampasso
Lidane Noronha, MS Student
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.
Allan Cabrero, PhD Student (UC Berkeley)
My research interests lie in the insect order Diptera (true flies), I am especially interested in parasitoid evolution within Diptera. A group of particular interest are the Bombyliidae or bee flies, this large family of flies have parasitic larvae and are important pollinators as adults. Using next-generation sequencing, phylogenetic and taxonomic methods I will explore the systematics and parasitoid evolution of this diverse family.
https://allancabrero.wordpress.com
https://allancabrero.wordpress.com
Nina Pak, PhD Student (UC Berkeley)
Nina is interested in the ecology, evolution and phylogeny of Canacidae (Beach Flies). While this group is worldwide in distribution and highly tolerant to saline environments, some Hawaiian lineages have lost their ability to tolerate saline habitats and occupy fresh water streams. She is also exploring the genetic architecture of salt-tolerance and how it has evolved across the fly tree of life. Her research is in genome evolution, entomology, ecological shifts, and island biogeography.
Publications
O'Grady, PM and Pak, N. 2016. Studies in Hawaiian Diptera III: New Distributional Records for Endemic Canacidae and a New Species of Procanace. Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e5611 [PDF|Journal]
Publications
O'Grady, PM and Pak, N. 2016. Studies in Hawaiian Diptera III: New Distributional Records for Endemic Canacidae and a New Species of Procanace. Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e5611 [PDF|Journal]
 Paceyn collecting ephydrids and canacids, Ft. Bragg, CA, February 2011. |
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