Chris Holland, Dr. Gil Rosenthal’s most recent PhD graduate, just landed a super postdoc on the evolution of domestication in salmon in Mike Blouin’s lab at Oregon State University. Congratulations, Chris!

At Texas A&M, the focus of Dr. Holland’s dissertation was identifying and studying pheromone communication in the naturally hybridizing swordtail fish, Xiphophorus birchmanni and malinche and their hybrid’s, in Dr. Gil Rosenthal’s lab. The goals of his project were to identify the location of pheromone production in male Xiphophorus and characterize interspecific differences in the chemistry of pheromone signals. Quantifying pheromone chemistry enabled me to assess signal variation among species and among populations and to directly test the role of pheromones as mechanisms of reproductive isolation. At Oregon State University, he studies selection on behavioral and physiological traits in hatchery in salmon and the evolution of domestication.