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 at Rutgers and Harvard has served as the basis for much of my ongoing research.

In Fall 2013, I am teaching BIO 111 lecture (Concepts in Ecology and Environmental Issues); BIO 121 Lab (Principles of Biology I), and BIO 235 lecture and labs (Ecology, Evolution and Genetics). In recent years, I have taught taught BIO 112 (Concepts in Human Biology and Health), BIO 121/122 (Principles of Biology I/II), BIO 313 (Advanced Mendelian and Population Genetics), and PSC 300 (Law and Science).

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 our RESEARCH page. I am a strong proponent of evolution education (see VIEWPOINT: What Every Undergraduate Should Know about Evolution (and Why), BioScience 2005), and served for two years as Lead Editor of population, quantitative and evolutionary genetics for Nature Education (Scitable) when it was launched in 2007. 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), and I am one of the organizers of Cedar Crest's annual Darwin Day celebration. On leave from Cedar Crest for the 2011 calendar year, I served as a Program Director in the Division of Environmental Biology (Evolutionary Processes) at the National Science Foundation. I also serve as an associate editor for The Journal of Molecular Evolution.

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

Scuba photo by Bill Forsee, Earthwatch volunteer, 2011