Melissa Plakke

I am currently an IRACDA Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Kansas working under the guidance of Dr. Jamie Walters. I am broadly interested in how reproductive traits of males and females evolve in relation to each other, particularly under instances of conflict. I am further interested in how these co-evolutionary processes lead to divergence and potential speciation between populations. While my research can apply broadly to any system, I have utilized the Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris rapae, as a system for my PhD. I have worked with populations from Pennsylvania, USA, Versailles, France, and Hayama, Japan.