Dr. Robert Laport Biology Assistant Professor/Director of Hm Tucker Herbarium

Dr. Robert Laport is an Assistant Professor of Biology & Director of the Harold M. Tucker Herbarium (CIC) in the Department of Biology. As a plant evolutionary ecologist his research primarily focuses on questions at the intersection of evolution, ecology, and the origins of biodiversity. Using field studies, population genetics, molecular systematics, and greenhouse experiments student researchers in his lab group focus on questions such as: How does new biodiversity arise? What ecological interactions determine where species occur? and What factors determine species co-occurrence?

Before coming to the College of Idaho, Dr. Laport was an Assistant Professor of Biology and Curator of the herbarium at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He also has teaching experience at the University of Colorado-Denver and the Rochester Institute of Technology, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.