Bio:

Joseph Ryan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida, and faculty at UF's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience. His research group investigates the evolutionary processes that have led to the diversity of life on Earth by integrating genomics and phylogenetics with a wide array of other biological fields including cell and developmental biology, systematics, behavior, ecology, and neuroscience. His work is performed mostly in the context of marine invertebrate animals, with published studies on ctenophores, cnidarians, sponges, placozoans, tunicates, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, brittle stars, sea stars, flatworms, bryozoans, annelids, horseshoe crabs, and more. Research from his group has included the publication of numerous animal genomes (including the first published ctenophore genome), large phylogenomic studies in multiple animal lineages, molecular characterization of novel cell and tissue types, investigations of horizontal gene transfer in animals, reproductive behavioral studies, the evolution of sexual and reproductive traits, and the origin and evolution of the nervous system. Ryan received his Ph.D. in bioinformatics from Boston University. He carried out postdoctoral research at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health and at the Sars International Centre for Molecular Biology in Norway.