Fellowship / Fellows

Maria E. Orive

  • 2007–2008
  • Biological Sciences
  • The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fellow
  • University of Kansas
Headshot of Maria E. Orive
Photo by Tony Rinaldo

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Maria E. Orive is a professor of evolutionary genetics in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. Her research in theoretical population genetics aims to develop mathematical models that provide a conceptual framework for exploring important questions in evolutionary biology and analytical tools for demographic and genetic data. Some of her recent work has considered levels of selection and mutation in organisms that reproduce both sexually and asexually, as well as models of within-host viral population dynamics that take into account the structural complexity of the vertebrate host.

During her fellowship year, Orive will develop a theoretical modeling framework for investigating host-symbiont genome evolution, with a focus on the more specific question of the joint population structure and coevolution of cnidarians (such as marine corals) and their algal endosymbionts. She will use two complementary approaches, the first focusing on measures of identity by descent, and the second involving measures of disequilibrium. These theoretical models will explore the role of coevolution and of the shifting association of host and symbiont over time in shaping the genomes of both members of the symbiosis.

Orive received her BS from Stanford University and her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Minority Graduate Fellowship for her graduate studies and was an NSF-NATO Postdoctoral Fellow to the University of Edinburgh. Her research has been funded by the NSF and by the National Institutes of Health.

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

01 / 09

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