John P. Wares
Professor
Department of Genetics & Odum School of Ecology
University of Georgia
jpwares@uga.edu • @wareslab

What I do

I study organismal diversity within and among locations - sometimes that means molecular diversity, sometimes species diversity or higher. The traits that govern life history and trade-offs in growth and reproduction drive fantastic spatial patterns. So, I study zoology and geology and geography and climate, often in the same papers. Some dispersal is symmetric from the parents, some is driven by wind or water, and that has its own unique set of effects on diversity. What we do as a research group is as much ecological as it is evolutionary in nature. When it comes down to it, I am trying to understand how diversity is distributed on this planet.

I have given up trying to make this webpage something that guides you to the high points - the best way to see what I’ve written and how it has influenced other biologists is to look at my record via Google Scholar. I also now have a ResearchGate page. Preprints at PeerJ and bioRxiv will also show up there.

Blogs and Social Media

Lab blog is available here, lab twitter account here

What I Teach and/or How I Teach

Introduction to Evolution, Population Genetics, Climate Change and Evolution, Biodiversity Genetics (management, discovery), Molecular Ecology
2013 Sustainability in the Curriculum Workshop
2014 CTL Writing Fellow
2016 Instructor, Friday Harbor Labs (UW)
2017-present, Introduction to Organismal Biology for Non-Majors at UGA (BIOL 1104)

links to wiki resources developed by Honors Evolution courses in 2012 (Evolution and Climate Change) and 2015 (Evolution and Infectious Disease)

These days I'm focused on teaching organismal biology for non-bio majors as well as I can with a focus on the topics above, and molecular ecology, with a new interactive text being developed.

Whom I Have Mentored

see People link

Public Service

I’m proud to serve the Athens and University of Georgia communities through trail building and trail education. I have worked with the local chapter of SORBA as well as other trail building organizations. I am a recent President of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Natural History. I volunteer often with the BikeAthens "Bike Repair Program".