Research interests: plant systematics and macroevolution, natural history, herbarium collections, model clades, remote sensing and spectroscopy, computational biology, bioinformatics and genomics, & big data
 
Organismal biology and model clades

• Eriogonum (Western North American "false buckwheats"): phylogenomics, reticulate evolution, phylogeography, systematics, taxonomy, and ecology
  
• Reynoutria (invasive Japanese knotweed and friends): ecology, taxonomy, biogeography
• Polygonaceae (buckwheats, smartweeds, seagrapes, and relatives): phylogenomics, reticulate evolution, systematics, and ecology
• Caryophyllales (cacti, beets, carnivorous sundews and pitcher plants, et al.): phylogenomics, functional genomics, morphology
• Dipsacales (teasels, viburnums, honeysuckles, et al.), with a focus on Lonicera (honeysuckles): phylogenomics, morphology, evo-devo

Deep-time origins of plant biodiversity

• functional trait macroevolution using reflectance spectra and spectrally-derived traits
• phylogenomics and systematics of lineages with deep reticulation
• evolution of specialized metabolism (e.g. tyrosine-derived metabolism and betalains in beets, buckwheats, and relatives)
• evolution of genetic mechanisms underlying leaf and floral fusions

Short-term shifts in plant function

• assessment of historical functional trait change from herbarium specimens using empirical and spectrally-derived functional traits
• detection of tree disease using remote sensing and land surface phenometrics