Dr. Luis Fernando De León
Postdoctoral Researcher
Education
- Ph.D., Redpath Museum and Department of Biology. McGill University, Canada. Dissertation: The Ecology of the adaptive radiation in Darwin’s finches. Under the Neotropical Environment Option (NEO-program). Supervisors: Andrew A.P. Hendry and Eldridge Bermingham.
- B.Sc., Department Biology, University of Panama. Panamá.
Research Interests
My research interests focus on understanding the micro-evolutionary processes that determine adaptive diversification in natural populations. Specifically, I study how ecological differences can promote and maintain morphological and genetic divergence within populations and among species.
I am also interested in how anthropogenic disturbances can affect the initial stages of adaptive diversification, and in particular, how humans can impact the adaptive landscapes that maintain the boundaries between populations or species. The implications of this research program are twofold. First, it is important because understanding the patterns of biodiversity requires a solid notion of the evolutionary trajectories and the forces that promote/prevent diversification in nature. And second, conserving such patterns of biodiversity inherently depends on preserving the processes that promote such diversity.