Emily V. Kerns
Hi, I’m Emily! I am a PhD candidate studying evolutionary genetics in the Weber Lab at UW-Madison. I am also part of the Alaska Stickleback Project, a large eco-evolution and restoration experiment. My dissertation is focused on investigating how phenotypic plasticity is shaped by evolution, and its subsequent impacts on ecology. I use the fish threespine stickleback to study evolved variation in plastic mechanisms, including DNA methylation and transcription. More broadly, I’m interested in understanding population movement (or stagnation) across adaptive landscapes, contemporary evolution, and applying evolutionary biology to modern conservation problems. I plan to pursue an academic career and am searching for postdocs that begin in September 2026.
Curriculum Vitae
Last updated April 2026
Research Updates
July, 2026
I passed my PhD defense! The last 5 years have been challenging, fun, and incredibly rewarding. It’s truly a dream come true to do curiosity-driven research every day. I couldn’t have done it without the support and knowledge of my advisor, lab mates, friends, and family.
April, 2026
I submitted my second PhD chapter for review at Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences! We conducted an experiment to assess how chronic thermal tolerance, genetic background, and immunity interact in threespine stickleback. After acclimating benthic and limnetic stickleback to heat treatments well below their critical thermal maximum, we exposed them to the tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus and measured oxygen consumption rates. After 30 days at their experimental temperature, we remeasured oxygen consumption and collected infection outcomes and incidence of peritoneal fibrosis, an immune response to ward off tapeworm infection. Benthic fish fared much better at the highest temperature than limnetic fish, and this was associated with more stable metabolic rates across all temperatures. While there was only one successful tapeworm infection (out of >150 fish exposed!), we found a clear metabolic cost of mounting a fibrotic immune response. To learn more about our results and the potential evolutionary and conservation implications of using metabolism to predict population resilience, check out our preprint on BioRxiv!
April, 2026
A large, collaborative manuscript was just accepted by American Naturualist! The Alaska Department of Fish & Game treated 9 lakes on the Kenai Peninsula with rotenone to eradicate invasive pike. In 2019, a large group of academics collaborated with Fish & Game to transplant threespine stickleback of known ancestry into these lakes. This large restoration effort was conducted using a factorial experimental design, allowing us to track changes in ecology and evolution over time. Using a combination of lab experiments and field observations, we show strong evidence of enemy release driving eco-evolutionary dynamics between a tapeworm (S. solidus) and a heritable immune response that suppresses tapeworm infections in stickleback. To learn more, check out the newly accepted paper or see Alaska Stickleback Restoration Project.
March, 2026
I submitted my first PhD chapter for review at Molecular Ecology Resources! I compared the performance of 5 different read mapping methods for reduced representation (RRBS) and whole genome bisulfite-converted data (WGBS) across 6 nonmodel organisms. I also assess how the methylation profiles from RRBS and WGBS differed when performed on the same samples. We found some surprising results, including that the most common read mapping method for BS-seq data resulted in the lowest mapping efficiency, but that newer bioinformatic methods dropped most unmethylated cytosines. I also discovered that RRBS recovers very few cytosines with variable methylation states between cells, but, reassuringly, RRBS enriched for functional genomic regions compared to WGBS. To read more about our results and recommendations for evolutionary ecologists delving into epigenetics, see our preprint on BioRxiv!
December, 2025
My undergraduate mentee’s research project was accepted for publication at PeerJ! Sara and I worked together to design and conduct an experiment testing whether the tapeworm S. solidus use quorum sensing to initiate hatching. We predicted that eggs in higher densities would exhibit higher hatching rates. While we found no effect of density on hatch rates, I think this was an exciting experiment with interesting evolutionary predictions and implications. To learn more, check out our manuscript!
November, 2025
I was honored to be considered a finalist for the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowship. In collaboration with my UCLA mentor, Professor Greg Grether, and California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) mentor, Dr. Bryan Barney, we proposed studying how introgression and inbreeding in McCloud River Redband trout, a species of conservation concern, influenced mortality risk during a catastrophic drought and subsequent species-rescue in 2014. During the drought, CDFW collected surviving McCloud River Redbands and brought them into a hatchery, establishing a conservation broodstock and saving this rare species from extinction. After two years, survivors and some of their F1 offspring were released back into their home streams. We proposed using fin clips collected throughout this period to assess if genetic risk factors influenced mortality rates, as well as connecting genes to resilience phenotypes in collaboration with Dr. Nann Fangue’s lab at UC Davis. While I was not selected for this fellowship, I am proud of the application we put forward, excited that I was able to establish new collaborations across multiple institutions, and hopeful that one day we will be able to pursue these important projects that combine evolutionary theory with applied conservation. Check out this video to learn more about CDFW’s ongoing conservation of McCloud River Redband trout.
October, 2025
I gave my first invited seminar as part of UW-Madison’s Evolution Seminar Series! Thank you to the Evolution Seminar Series Committee for extending the invitation. It was an honor and a ton of fun to share my research with the UW-Madison evolution community.
February, 2025
My second paper is published in Evolution! This project was a continuation of my work at the University of North Florida as an undergraduate research assistant. We used more extensive genetic analysis to dig into the landscape genetic patterns of a hybrid zone between two Fundulus species on the east coast of Florida. We discovered that hybridization between these two species is both asymmetrical and dependent on microhabitat variation within the 37Km hybrid zone. Check out the paper to learn more!
January, 2025
I am honored to receive the 2024 Society for the Study of Evolution Graduate Research Excellence Grant: Rosemary Grant Advanced Award! I was awarded $3,500 for my proposal “How does selection shape DNA methylation and variation in resiliency of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to rising temperatures?” I’m thrilled that I will be able to sequence samples from a previous experiment to explore the epigenetic mechnanisms associated with thermal tolerance.
July, 2023
I completed the last field season of my PhD! Enjoy some photos from the 2022 and 2023 field season, in which I conducted a large transplant experiment that required the help and support of many people in the Weber Lab, the larger Alaska Stickleback Restoration Project, and in the local community.
April, 2023
After near-daily data collection since October, Trey (another PhD student in the lab) & I finished running a thermal tolerance experiment!
March, 2023
I am honored to receive Honorable Mention from the National Science Foundation’s 2022 Graduate Research Fellowship Program. While not funded, it’s exciting that the NSF acknowledged my potential as a researcher and seriously considered funding my project ideas regarding the how DNA methylation mediates plasticity, heritability, and selection. Congrats to all of the awardees!
March, 2022
My first paper is published in Evolutionary Biology! This paper is the result of work I did as an undergraduate at the University of North Florida. We used species-specific nuclear and mitochondrial markers to track hybridization between two fish species, Fundulus heteroclitus and F. grandis, on the east coast of Florida. We found fluctuating selection, but hybrids were largely selected against. Check out the paper to learn more!
September, 2021
I officially joined the Weber Lab as a PhD student in Integrative Biology!
2019 - 2020
Enjoy some photos from my time in civil service. I worked as field biologist (Biological Science Technician) for AmeriCorps, the Student Conservation Association, National Park Service, and US Forest Service.
Teaching
I was able to put this formal training to practice by being a teaching assistant for three classes across six semesters. During my most recent semester as a TA, five undergraduates approached me for assistance with breaking into academic research. I also mentored 5 undergraduates in the lab, producing one co-first authored paper with my first mentee and including another as a coauthor on one of my thesis chapters.
Some of my favorite quotes from recent anonymous course evaluations:
“I love her. She was amazing and so slay. Actually made me interested in the content.”
“She is very clearly passionate about the subject, and made me feel more comfortable with some of the parts of the class that I was nervous about. This is the best TA I’ve had since being here for my first year.”
“Emily was one of the best instructors I have had in undergrad. She was very knowledgeable on the topics discussed and always came to the labs well prepared. Additionally, as a student, you can tell that she wants you to succeed. She would spend our entire lab periods going around asking questions to make sure students had a good understanding of the material. If you perhaps didn’t have the correct answer to one of her questions, she would always use it as a learning opportunity. Any student would be lucky to have Emily as their instructor; she is truly one of the most helpful and purposeful instructors I have had here at Madison.”
“very kind and patient”
Outreach
I served as Outreach Coordinator for two years for the Department of Integrative Biology’s Graduate Student Organization. I brought outreach back to the department for the first time since before the Covid pandemic. During my tenure as Outreach Coordinator, 11 graduate student volunteers introduced over 3,600 community members to unfamiliar and misunderstood animals across 5 events.
