John is a second-year PhD student in Biology at Kansas State University working with Dr. Michael Tobler. He hopes to understand how organisms adapt to novel environments using a variety of evolutionary and computational approaches. His current Ph.D. research examines the mechanisms and evolution of heavy metal tolerance in Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) populations living in streams contaminated with mine outflow. John visited us here at WSU in June to collaborate on work to understand gene expression patterns that may allow these mosquitofish to live in contaminated environments.