“The goal of understanding and predicting biodiversity dynamics comes at a critical moment when human systems are disrupting those very dynamics,” explains new Omidyar Fellow Andy Rominger, neatly summarizing his motivations to elucidate the profound connections across ecology and evolution and to unify them in “a simple set of universal governing mechanisms.”
This pursuit has guided him through his undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Stanford University and his Ph.D. in environmental science, policy, and management from UC Berkeley. He brings his recent experience as a postdoctoral scholar with the Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology to SFI with the intention to create “a foundation for how global change may drive future shifts in ecology and evolution.” Rominger’s approach uses principles from statistical physics and data science to confront theory with real-world data. He advocates the hypothesis that universal patterns of biodiversity emerge from a blend of statistical mechanics of large systems and non-equilibrium dynamics bestowed by evolutionary history onto biological systems.
At SFI, Rominger anticipates exploring connections between biology and disparate fields. “I am thrilled by the prospect of collaborating with open-minded researchers from diverse backgrounds who revoke disciplinary constraints in order to advance science.” He plans to join SFI this summer.