Personal Web Page of
Peter F. Smith
University of Maine - Orono, Maine
- USA
Phone (207)581-2539 - Fax (207)581-2537
Department of Biological Sciences 5751 Murray Hall Orono, Maine 04469
email: peter.smith@umit.maine.edu
Lab URL : http://nature.umesci.maine.edu/
Overview:
I am a graduate student at the University
of Maine, studying towards a Ph.D. in Biological sciences. I'm also
a research assistant in the lab of Dr.
Irv Kornfield, professor of zoology and marine
sciences. The main focus of my research is the study of evolution.
The species flocks of cichlid fish in east Africa, have served as a model
system in this pursuit. I have been studying population genetics
and molecular systematics of these fishes using several microsatellite
DNA markers. The use of molecular markers in my thesis work as well
as in the several other ongoing projects in the lab (such as: lobster population
genetics, haddock population genetics, crustacean systematics, shellfish
and fin fish aquaculture, and whale ecology and identification) has inspired
an interest in the wide variety of applications of various genetic markers.
The development of the University of Maine Molecular
Forensics Lab in 1997 has provided me an opportunity to be involved
in one very interesting application of genetics: law enforcement.
Research:
My research interests span a broad range of topics in ecology
and evolutionary biology. The primary thrust of my research on cichlid
fishes is to try to determine some of the factors involved in generating
the huge number of cichlid species in Lake Malawi (as many as 1000) over
such a short period of time (hundreds of these species may have emerged
in the last 20,000 years). A major focus is to reconstruct the phylogeny
of closely related groups as a means of inferring the process of their
divergence. Please visit my Malawi Cichlid
page to learn about my research on the evolution of cichlid fish of
Lake Malawi, East Africa.
Much of my time as a research assistant has been spent
in the development and operation of the University of Maine Molecular forensics
lab. As an analyst in the lab, I have processed evidence for over
thirty wildlife crime cases for the Maine Warden Service since 1997.
Background microsatellite allele frequencies have been generated for Maine's
deer and moose populations for use in matching cases. Please visit
the University of Maine
Molecular Forensics Lab page for more information on my work in DNA
forensics and deer and moose population genetics.
Meetings:
Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference. Manchester, New Hampshire.
April, 1999. Poster Title: "Wildlife Forensics - Enhancing the Forensic
Capabilities of the Maine Warden Service"
Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium.
Bar Harbor, Maine. May, 1999. Paper Title: "Speciation of Lake
Malawi Cichlids - Inferring Process from Pattern"
Joint Meeting of the Society of Systmatic Biologists,
Society of American Naturalists, and the Society for the Study of Evolution.
Madison, Wisconsin. June, 1999. Poster Title: "Zoogeographical
Patterns Among Distinctive Malawi Cichlid Endemics: Microsatellite
Signatures"
Meeting of the Northwest Society of Forensic Scientists.
Cheyenne, Wyoming. October, 1999. Paper Title: "The Development
of Microsatellite Databases for Wildlife Forensics in the Northeast United
States - Match Probability Calculations and Implications of Population
Structure" (Presented by Kornfield)
Meeting of the New England Molecular Evolutionary Biologists.
Albany, New York. November, 1999. Paper Title: "Microsatellite Evidence
for Allopatric Speciation in Malawi Cichlid Fish: A Hiatus for Sympatry"
Societies:
Society
for the Study of Evolution
Society
of Systematic Biologists
Maine Medico-Legal Society
Links:
