Research in my lab is broadly focused on understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. We are particularly interested in the role of ecological adaptation in the formation of new species and understanding the factors that promote or constrain evolutionary responses to environmental change. The lab takes an integrative approach to investigating how ecological processes, biogeography, physiological systems, genetic variation, and genomic architecture interact during the origin of species and adaptation to novel niches and changing environments. While these fundamental questions pertain to all of the living world, our research program is more specifically focused on some of the most successful and diverse organisms on the planet: plant- feeding insects and their specialist parasitoids. The lab has a special interest in understanding the evolution of insect life history timing and its role in both speciation and adaptation to climate change.

The lab is part of the Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University, one of the four University Centers in the SUNY system and one of the premier public universities in the Northeast. We're located on a 900 acre campus near the North Branch of Susquehanna River as it cuts through the Allegheny Plateau. 

Lab News

Sep. 2020 - New paper out in PNAS with Eddy Dowle, Greg Ragland, et al. on genomics and transcriptomics of divergent seasonal adaptation underlying speciation in Rhagoletis https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002357117

Aug. 2020 - We are very excited that all-star postdoc Alycia Lackey is now starting her own lab at the University of Louisville! http://alyciarlackey.weebly.com/

 Jul. 2020  - New paper out in JEB -A rapidly evolved shift in life-history timing during ecological speciation is driven by the transition between developmental phases. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13676

Jan. 2020 - New paper out in Evolution with Glen Hood, Meredith Doellman, Jeff Feder and colleagues on the very recent (<40 years!) incipient speciation of Rhagoletis flies introduced to the Pacific Northwest- https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13882

Aug. 2019 - Although we're quite sad to see her go, we're excited that lab undergrad alumna Alyssa Murray is starting her PhD in the Dopman lab at Tufts.

Jun. 2016 - Our NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant has been recommended for funding! This collaborative proposal with Jeff Feder, Dan Hahn, and Greg Ragland will examine the coevolution of life history timing across insect trophic levels from the perspectives of sequential ecological speciation and the maintenance of temporal synchrony of insect communities under climate change.

Thomas H. Q. Powell
Department of Biological Sciences
PO Box 6000
4400 Vestal Parkway East
Binghamton, NY 13901

Office: Science III 112
​Lab: Science III 184
email: powellt"at"binghamton"dot"edu
Phone: 607-777-4439
Dept. Fax: 607-777-6521