Welcome to my home page!    I joined the faculty at Cedar Crest in 2002 after seven years of teaching at large public universities. I was an undergraduate at Colby College, where I double-majored in biology and music. I earned my Ph.D. at another liberal arts college, Wesleyan University, studying the quantitative genetics and physiology of photoperiodism and biological rhythms in the Djungarian hamster. My postdoctoral research on molecular evolution and population genetics (three years at Rutgers and one at Harvard) has served as the basis for much of my research ever since.

In Fall 2009, I am teaching BIO 121 (Principles of Biology I) and BIO 235 (Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, with Dr. John Cigliano). In recent years, I have taught Genetics; Bioinformatics; Law and Science (with Dr. Kim Spiezio); Junior Colloquium; Science, Ethics and Society; Concepts in Human Biology and Health; and an honors course on Pseudoscience. In Spring 2010, I will be teaching a new course, Advanced Mendelian and Population Genetics.

My interests are broad, and center on questions in evolutionary genetics and genomics (codon bias, speciation) and ecological genetics (queen conch). Current projects and collaborations are described in more detail on my RESEARCH page. I am a strong proponent of evolution education (see VIEWPOINT: What Every Undergraduate Should Know about Evolution (and Why)), and serve as Associate Editor of population, quantitative and evolutionary genetics for Nature Education (Scitable). With Drs. Scott Edwards (Harvard) and Jory Weintraub (National Evolution Synthesis Center), I coordinate Undergraduate Diversity at SSE/SSB, a program supported by the National Science Foundation to send undergraduates to the annual Evolution research conference. I have developed a population genetics computer simulation (EvolGenius), along with a molecular/evolutionary genetics lab sequence (the "Cow Diversity Project"), both of which are used at other colleges. I am also one of the organizers of Cedar Crest's annual Darwin Day celebration.

Contact Info: Phone: (610) 606-4666, ext 3501 Email: rmkliman@cedarcrest.edu Office: Miller Building, Room 24

Mailing Address: Dept. of Biological Sciences Cedar Crest College 100 College Drive Allentown, PA 18104-6196