Mountains harbor exceptional biodiversity and high levels of endemism, making them global biodiversity hotspots. Yet, montane biotas are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their narrow ecological niches and restricted dispersal opportunities. In this seminar, I will present recent and ongoing projects exploring the origins and diversification of mammals on the Tibetan Plateau, highlighting how major geoclimatic events shaped species radiations and community turnover.

Understanding how adaptation proceeds via natural selection is a central goal of evolutionary biology, with broad implications for the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Our research group investigates the dynamics of rapid adaptation using manipulative experiments that combine ecology, evolution, and genomics. We aim to characterize the pace, genomic architecture, and ecological consequences of rapid evolution in natural environments.