Chris Simon

Office: BioPharm 305D
Voice: 860-486-4640
Email: chris.simon@uconn.edu
Click here for a CV

Academic Biography:

Chris Simon is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut and Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is also a research associate of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI. From 1995 to 1998 she was a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow co-sponsored by Victoria University of Wellington, Otago University, and Massey University, New Zealand. From 2005-2007 she was a Professorial Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington.

Recent projects in her laboratory focus on the application of information on molecular evolutionary processes to the improvement of tree-building, speciation and its relationship to past climates and landforms, evolution of periodical life cycles, the role of song in the evolution of insect species, the systematics, biogeography, evolution of cicadas worldwide and molecular evolution of the secondary structure of ribosomal RNA. Funding for these research projects has come from the US National Science Foundation, NZ Marsden Fund, The National Geographic Society, the Fulbright Foundation, the University of Connecticut and Victoria University of Wellington.

Chris Simon received her BS & MS degrees from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook. She conducted NSF-sponsored postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, Washington University St. Louis and University of Hawaii. She taught two 2-month-long field courses In tropical ecology in Costa Rica for the Organization for Tropical Studies. She was an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii before moving to the University of Connecticut. From 2001-2004, she was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Systematic Biology, the most highly rated primary research journal in the field of Evolutionary Biology. She was President of the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) in 2007. Her past offices in SSB include Secretary, Program Director, and publication committee chair. In the later capacity, she negotiated a new publication contract for the journal and oversaw the transfer to Oxford University Press beginning in 2009. She was Vice President of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and also served on the council. In 1991, she organized the joint meetings of SSE/SSB/ASN in Hilo, Hawaii. She has served on multiple National Science Foundation advisory panels and since 1990 on the Editorial Board of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Her publications since 1994 have attracted more than 2000 citations. Since Chris Simon arrived at UCONN in 1991, 28 undergraduate researchers, 19 graduate students and eight postdoctoral researchers have trained in her laboratory.

Selected Publications:

Fontaine K.M., J.R. Cooley, C. Simon. 2007. Evidence for Paternal Leakage in Hybrid Periodical Cicadas (Hemiptera: Magicicada spp.). PLoS ONE 2(9): e892, 1-8. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000892
Simon, C., T.R. Buckley, F. Frati, J. Stewart, and A. Beckenbach. 2006. Incorporating molecular evolution into phylogenetic analysis, and a new compilation of conserved polymerase chain reaction primers for animal mitochondrial DNA. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 37:545-579 + 45 pages of on-line supplement.
Marshall, D,C., C. Simon, and T.R. Buckley. 2006. Accurate Branch Length Estimation in Partitioned Bayesian Analyses Requires Accommodation of Among-Partition Rate Variation and Attention to Branch Length Priors. Systematic Biology 55: 993-1003.
Buckley, T.R., M. Cordeiro, D.C. Marshall, and C. Simon. 2006. Differentiating between hypotheses of lineage sorting and introgression in New Zealand alpine cicadas (Maoricicada Dugdale). Systematic Biology 55:411-425.
Cooley, J.R., D. Marshall, K.B.R. Hill and C. Simon. 2006. Reconstructing asymmetrical reproductive character displacement in a periodical cicada contact zone. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 855-868.
Jordan, S., C. Simon, D. Foote, and R.A. Englund. 2005. Phylogeographic patterns of Hawaiian Megalagrion damselflies (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) correlate with Pleistocene island boundaries. Molecular Ecology 14: 3457-3470.
Arensburger, P., T.R. Buckley, C. Simon, M. Moulds and K. E. Holsinger. 2004. Biogeography and phylogeny of the New Zealand Cicada Genera (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA data. Journal of Biogeography 31: 557569.
Carapelli, A., F.N. Soto-Adames, C. Simon, F. Frati, F. Nardi, and R. Dallai. 2004. Secondary structure, high variability, and conserved motifs for domain III of 12S rRNA in the Arthropleona (Hexapoda; Collembola). Insect Molecular Biology 13:659-670.
Arensburger, P., C. Simon, and K. Holsinger. 2004. Evolution and Phylogeny of the New Zealand cicada genus Kikihia Dugdale (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadidae) with special reference to the origin of the Kermadec and Norfolk Islands species. Journal of Biogeography, 31: 1769-1783.
Marshall, D. C., J. R. Cooley, and C. Simon. 2003. Holocene climate shifts, life-cycle plasticity, and speciation in periodical cicadas: A comment and reply to Cox and Carlton. Evolution, 57:433-437.
Cooley, J. R., C. Simon, and D. C. Marshall. 2003. Temporal separation and speciation in periodical cicadas. BioScience, 53: 151-157.
Jordan, S., C. Simon, and D. Polhemus. 2003. Molecular Systematics and Adaptive Radiation of Hawaii's Endemic Damselfly Genus Megalagrion. Systematic Biology 52(1): 89-109.
Buckley, T.R., P. Arensburger, C. Simon, and G.K. Chambers. 2002. Combined Data, Bayesian Phylogenetics, and the Origin of the New Zealand Cicada Genera. Systematic Biology 51(1): 4-18.
Cooley, J.R., C. Simon, D. C. Marshall, K, Slon and C. Ehrhardt. 2001. Allochronic speciation, secondary contact, and reproductive character displacement in periodical cicadas (Hemiptera: Magicicada spp.): Genetic, morphological, and behavioral evidence. Molecular Ecology 10: 661-671.
Buckley, T.R. C. Simon, H. Shimodaira, and G. K. Chambers. 2001. Evaluating hypotheses on the origin and evolution of the New Zealand alpine cicadas (Maoricicada) using multiple comparison tests of tree topology. Molecular Biology and Evolution 18(2): 223-234.
Artiss, Thomas, Ted R. Schultz, Dan A. Polhemus, and Chris Simon. 2001. Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis of the Odonate Genera Libellula , Ladona and Plathemis (Odonata: Libellulidae) Based on Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I and 16S rRNA Sequence Data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 18: 348-361.
Buckley, T.R., C. Simon, and G.K. Chambers. 2001. Phylogeography of the New Zealand cicada Maoricicada campbelli based on mitochondrial DNA sequences: Ancient clades associated with Cenozoic environmental change. Evolution 55:1395-1407
Simon, C.M., J. Tang, S. Dalwadi, G. Staley, J. Deniega, and T.R. Unnasch. 2000. Genetic evidence for assortative mating between 13-year cicadas and sympatric 17-year cicadas with 13-year life cycles provides support for allochronic speciation. Evolution 54:1326-1336.
Note: The above article was highlighted in articles in: 1) New Scientist, 17 July 99; 2) Science News, 24 June 2000; 3) Editors Choice section of SCIENCE magazine, Sept 1, 2000; and 4) Trends in Ecology and Evolution, February 2001.
Frati, F., C. Simon, J. Sullivan, and D. Swofford. 1997. Gene evolution and phylogeny of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene in collembola. J. Molecular Evolution 44:145-158.
Hickson, R., C. Simon, A. Cooper, G. Spicer, J. Sullivan and D. Penny. 1996. Conserved sequence motifs, alignment, and secondary structure for the third domain of animal 12S rRNA. Molecular Biology and Evolution 13: 150-169.
Sullivan, J., K. E. Holsinger, and C. Simon. 1996. The effect of topology on estimates of among-site rate variation. J. Molecular Evolution 42: 308-312.
Simon, C., L. Nigro, J. Sullivan, K. Holsinger, A. Martin, A. Grapputo, A. Franke, and C. McIntosh. 1996. Large differences in substitutional pattern and evolutionary rate of 12S ribosomal RNA genes. Mol. Biol. Evol. 13: 923-932.
Gogarten, J.P., L. Olendzenski, E. Hilario, C. Simon, and K.E. Holsinger. 1996. Dating the Cenancester of Organisms. (Technical Comment on Doolittle's dating of the origin of early life: accounting for horizontal transfer and among site rate variation.) Science 274: 1750-1751.
Simon, C., F. Frati, A. Beckenbach, B. Crespi, H. Liu, and P. Flook. 1994. Evolution, weighting, and phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial gene sequences and a compilation of conserved PCR primers. Annals Entomol. Soc. Am. 87: 651-701.
Note: The above paper is a "Citation Classic." Essential Science Indicators (a branch of ISI, Web of Science), featured this paper on its website, noting that it currently ranks in the top three in the field of Plant & Animal Sciences, with over 1300 cites to date.
Heliovaara, K., R. Vaisanen, and C. Simon. 1994. The evolutionary ecology of insect periodicity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 475-480.
Martin, A.P. and C.M. Simon. 1988. Anomalous distribution of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers in periodical cicadas. Nature 336: 237-239.

Updated 4 August 2008
Website: http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/simon/Simon.htm