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Geoffrey Morris--Postdoctoral Scholar
Contact
Office: Erman Hall, Room 305 | Address: 1103 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773-834-4055 | Cell: 312-909-1330 | Fax: 773-702-9740
Email: gmorris _ uchicago _ edu
News
- "Wild in Chicago: You don’t have to fight traffic to find Mother Nature" Chicago Journal profile
- "Argonne, UChicago researchers pursue grasses as Earth-friendly biofuel" Department of Energy press release
- "River volunteers clean up the Chicago River" Medill video
- Data home directory
"We better get started this afternoon."
-- Fermilab director Robert Wilson, when told by Bob Betz that reconstructing a prairie on the Fermilab campus could take decades.
Research
Long-term ecological experiments have shown that increasing biodiversity leads greater primary production (biomass yield) and resilience to invasive species. However, there has been little study on whether increasing within-species biodiversity (i.e. genetic diversity) has similar benefits for biomass yield, resilience, and other ecosystem services. Whether in the context of bioenergy feedstock production or large-scale prairie reconstructions, it is likely that functional genetic variation in the tallgrass species, such as switchgrass and big bluestem, will make a difference in the success of the managed grassland. Project proposal presentation.
This work is supported by the University of Chicago Energy Initiative
For a great introduction to low-input high diversity bioenergy, see this video of a talk by David Tilman
Projects
- Ecosystem services from diverse plant communities -- Fermilab Bioenergy Experiments
- Urban Natural Areas Reconstruction: McCormick Bird Sanctuary, Canal Origins Park
- Population genomics for native grasses -- Genetic diversity in tallgrass across US and in Indiana Dunes
- Microclimate and plant diversity in the Indiana Dunes -- See my Weather Stations page
Publications
Borevitz JO, Hazen SP, Michael TP, Morris GP, Baxter IR, Hu TT, Chen H, Werner JD, Nordborg M, Salt DE, Kay SA, Chory J, Weigel D, Jones JD, Ecker J
Genome-wide patterns of single-feature polymorphism in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007 Jul 17;104(29):12057-62.
Byrnes JK, Morris GP, Li WH
Reorganization of adjacent gene relationships in yeast genomes by whole-genome duplication and gene deletion.
Mol Biol Evol. 2006 Jun;23(6):1136-43.
Education
B. Sc. (Biology), University of Ottawa, 1998-2002
Ph.D. (Ecology & Evolution), University of Chicago, 2002-2007
NSERC Postgraduate Scholar, 2002-2004
NSF Predoctoral Fellow, 2004-2007
Guest Researcher, Terrestrial Ecology Group, Argonne National Laboratory, 2008-
