Jason Pienaar is an assistant Professor at the university of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. His research focuses on understanding evolutionary processes, in \particular how adaptation optimizes organismal traits for their biological functions. He collaborates with theoretical biologists in Norway and South Africa to develop models of evolution on all time scales as well as statistical tools to test them. Small wasps that pollinate fig trees and produce highly skewed sex ratios and water bears (tardigrades) that are able to dehydrate their bodies and completely stop metabolizing during dry periods are favorite organisms for testing these models with.
