Priyanga Amarasekare

Priyanga Amarasekare’s research focuses on the ecology and evolution of species interactions in variable environments. Within this broad theme she has investigated a number of questions ranging from spatial dynamics of multi-trophic interactions to the evolution of thermal reaction norms. Her current research investigates how temperature effects on biochemical reactions that are integral to life constrain the set of possible ecological and evolutionary responses to warming.

Amarasekare is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Society of Naturalists Young Investigator Prize, a Complex Systems Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship to Oxford University. She was elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2017, and is the Vice President elect of the American Society of Naturalists.

Amarasekare received a B.Sc. degree in Zoology from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of California Irvine. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, she moved on to a faculty position at the University of Chicago’s Department of Ecology and Evolution. She is currently a Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of California Los Angeles.

Photo Credit: Kavan Wijeratne