Kathleen Donohue (born 1963) is an American biologist at Duke University. She researches how adaptation occurs on a genetic basis and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013 for her work.

Education

Kathleen Donohue attended Stanford University, graduating in 1985 with two bachelor's degrees. She then attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

for her master's degree (1988) and PhD (1993). Her doctoral advisor was Ellen Simms and her dissertation was titled ''The evolution of seed disperal in '' Cakile edentula'' var. ''lacustis''.

Career

In her early career, she was a faculty member at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. In 2008 she was hired at Duke University as an associate professor. She was appointed to full professor in 2012. She researches how adaptation occurs on a genetic basis, including

phenotypic plasticity Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompa ...

maternal effect A maternal effect is a situation where the phenotype of an organism is determined not only by the environment it experiences and its genotype, but also by the environment and genotype of its mother. In genetics, maternal effects occur when an org ...

epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are ...

niche construction Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own (or another species') local environment. These alterations can be a physical change to the organism’s environment or encompass when an organism actively moves from one habita ...

, biological dispersal,

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...

at multiple scales. From 2017 to 2020 she was director of Duke's ecology program.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

In 2013 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the plant sciences division. She was an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and of the

National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis is a research institute focused on the science of mathematics and biology, located on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus. Known by its acronym NIMBioS (pronounced NIM-bu ...

in 2013. In 2015 she served as president of the

American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donohue, Kathleen Living people Stanford University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Kentucky faculty Harvard University faculty Duke University faculty American women scientists American ecologists Women ecologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1963 births American women academics 21st-century American women