My research focuses on the use of molecular genetic markers to infer ecological and evolutionary processes in populations of wild organisms. Many of the basic questions in ecology and evolution tie into the fundamental problem of what limits the movement of individuals and the genes they carry at various spatial and temporal scales. Population genetics provides a set of tools to investigate the distribution of genetic variation within and between species to answer questions such as how species form, how to effectively manage threatened populations, or how to track down the patterns of introduction and spread of invasive species