DrTom Carruthers

My research attempts to advance understanding of the evolutionary processes that generate and maintain species diversity. This work is fundamentally dependent on estimating and interpreting phylogenetic trees (evolutionary trees). I am particularly interested in uderstanding how changing climates shape the evolution of species diversity, and in developing new methods that allow us to do this more effectively. Although most of my previous work has focussed on plants, ranging from narrow scale analyses of close relatives of sweet potato (Ipomoea) to broad scale analyses spanning all flowering plants, many of the evolutionary processes I am interested in are relevent accross the tree of life. 

Broadly, my future research aims to integrate insights from analyses much more effectively; both between different scales (e.g. from analyses within species, to analyses of major branches of the tree of life) and between different clades. This requires the generation of new datasets (e.g. datasets that sample multiple individuals per species), integration of existing datasets, and the developement of methods that account for the distinctive evlutionary processes that operate in the recent past (i.e. < 10 thousand years ago) compared to the much more distant past (i.e. 100s of millions of years ago). This can help to transform understanding of how changing climates impact the evolution of species diversity, enabling insights that span the recent to the distant past, and enabling predictions that and extend into the future.