Title: “The evolution of diatoms, a beautiful and diverse engine of productivity in Earth's oceans”

Abstract: Diatoms are the most important organisms you may have never heard of. These microscopic algae drive the ocean's "biological pump", drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, burying it on the sea floor, and in the process producing some 20% of Earth's oxygen. Diatoms do the seemingly impossible, building cell walls made of glass, with intricate patterns and ornamentations fabricated at the nanoscale – like living silicon-based computer chips. This talk will walk you down the unlikely path of diatom evolution, through the lens genomics and the diatom tree of life, including the unlikely path of a diatom biologist whose career began with an undergraduate research project.

Biography: Andy received a BS from Grand Valley State University, MS from Iowa State University, and PhD from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied the evolution of diatoms. He received an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Research Service Award to study the evolution of plant mitochondrial genome size as a postdoc at Indiana University. In 2012, he joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas, where he is currently a Professor and 21st Century Chair in Bioinformatics. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, Simons Foundation Early Career Investigator Award in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution, and the 2025 Darbaker Prize, given by the Botanical Society of America for outstanding research accomplishments in microalgae.