Congratulations to Carrie Wessinger on being awarded a 5 year Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA, R35) from the NIH! That award, funded at $368,168 per year, will support Carrie's research program on the convergent evolution of complex traits. Carrie's lab studies floral trait evolution in Penstemon using quantitative genetics, population genomics, fieldwork, and molecular genetic studies to adress the following questions: What is the genetic and genomic architecture for adaptive evolution? What components of parallel phenotypic evolution occur through similar genetic changes? Does standing variation or gene flow act as a source of adaptive alleles? How is complex trait variation maintained in recently diverged species? Learn more about Carrie's exciting research program here!