Courtney Murren
Professor, Assistant Chair, John Arthur Siegling Chair in Biology
Education
Ph.D. - University of ConnecticutB.A. - Mount Holyoke College
Research Interests
Plant Ecological Genetics and Genomics: evolution of phenotypic plasticity, phenotypic integration of roots and shoots, plant responses to soil environment, mutant phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana, local adaptation, factors contributing to invasive species establishment, costs of phenotype vs costs of plasticity, evolution of reaction norms.
Active Research Projects:
I’m interested in how phenotypes of organisms are built and interact with the environment. This leads to employment of ecological, developmental, genetic and statistical tools to ask questions about the evolution of phenotypic form. I have examined systems including orchids, invasive species, Brassica species, Mimulus and Arabidopsis. Currently, my research focuses on natural accessions and mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana. Together with collaborators at the College of Charleston (Matt Rutter and Allan Strand) and partners >16 institutions across North America, we have built the unPAK network (undergraduates phenotyping Arabidopsis knockouts arabidopsisunpak.org). Recently, I have been examining variation in above and belowground traits in response to environmental variation, and plants of the CofC Stono Preserve.
Courses Taught
BIO 211: Biodiversity, Ecology & Conservation BiologyBIO 341: General Ecology and General Ecology Lab
BIO 444/EVSS 544: Plant Ecology and Plant Ecology Lab
EVSS 610: Environmental Biology
Special topics: Biology of Food: an environmental biology perspective
Publications
Honors & Awards
John Arthur Siegling Chair in Biology, 2022William V. Moore Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award, 2017
Gordon E. Jones Distinguished Achievement Award, 2016