Jeremy M. Brown 

ProfessorJeremy Brown
SEE Division

PhD: University of Texas at Austin, 2009

Phone: 225-578-1745
Office: A243 Life Science Annex
Lab: 248/261 Life Science Building
E-mail: jembrown@lsu.edu  
Twitter:  

Area of Interest

Every living thing on Earth shares at least two qualities. First, they contain genomes that influence their interactions with the rest of the world. Second, they are the products of long evolutionary histories that have molded their genomes in very particular ways. Our work involves both using genomic data to reconstruct patterns of relatedness (phylogenies) between species, populations, individuals, and genes, as well as understanding what evolutionary forces (e.g., selection, drift, etc.) have acted on different branches of the tree of life to shape genomes. We work across a wide breadth of organisms and time scales. Some recent empirical work has involved:  

  • Clarifying the enigmatic evolutionary history of turtles
  • Settling the phylogenetic position of red pandas
  • Unraveling the relationships among major lineages of both squamates and amphibians
  • Inferring HIV transmission dynamics
  • Studying changes in a hybrid zone of chorus frogs in Louisiana and Mississippi over 40 years
  • Describing an anciently diverging lineage of living ants

Much of our work also involves developing statistical and computational tools to analyze genomic data, including:

  • Creating visual and analytical tools for exploring large sets of phylogenetic tree
  •  New approaches for quantifying phylogenetic information
  •  Identifying sets of genes that provide reliable phylogenetic signal
  •  Developing new models of sequence evolution

If you're interested in joining the lab, please email. Computational experience is helpful, but not required.

Awards & Honors

  • Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2020
  • LSU College of Science Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2020
  • Finalist, NIH Early Innovator Award, 2013, 2014
  • Non-tenured Faculty Research Award, 2017, LSU College of Science
  • Ernst Mayr Award, 2010, Society of Systematic Biologists

Selected Publications

Publication tracking:

J.M. Brown, G.G. Mount, K.A. Gallivan, and J.C. Wilgenbusch. 2023. Tree Set Visualization, Exploration, and Applications. In Species Tree Inference: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Eds. L.S. Kubatko and L.L. Knowles. Princeton University Press.

Thomson, R.C. and J.M. Brown. 2022. . Systematic Biology. 71:917-920.

Hime, P.M., A.R. Lemmon, E.C.M. Lemmon, E. Scott-Prendini, J.M. Brown, R.C. Thomson, J.D. Kratovil, B.P. Noonan, R.A. Pyron, P.L.V. Peloso, M.L. Kortyna, J.S. Keogh, S.C. Donnellan, R.L. Mueller, C.J. Raxworthy, K. Kunte, S. Ron, S. Das, N. Gaitonde, D.M. Green, J. Labisko, J. Che, and D.W. Weisrock. 2021. . Systematic Biology. 70:49-66.

Rider, P.J.F., L.M. Coghill, M. Naderi, M. Brylinski, J.M. Brown, and K.G. Kousoulas. 2019. Scientific Reports. 9:14625.

Brown, J.M. and R.C. Thomson. 2018. . Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 49:95-114.

Höhna, S., L.M. Coghill, G.G. Mount, R.C. Thomson, and J.M. Brown. 2018. P3: . Molecular Biology and Evolution. 35:1028-1034.

Barley, A.J., J.M. Brown, and R.C. Thomson. 2017. . Systematic Biology. 67:269-284.

Brown, J.M. and R.C. Thomson. 2017. . Systematic Biology. 66:517-530.

Huang, W., G. Zhou, M. Marchand, J. Ash, D. Morris, P. Van Dooren, J.M. Brown, K.A. Gallivan, and J.C. Wilgenbusch. 2016. . Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33:3314-3316.

Doyle, V.P., R.E. Young*, G.J.P. Naylor, and J.M. Brown. 2015. Systematic Biology. 64:824-837.

Brown, J.M. 2014. . Systematic Biology. 63(3): 334-348.

* Undergraduates