NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Chicago (2007-2009) NSERC PGSD doctoral Fellowship, UBC (2004-2006) Collections Study Grant, American Museum of Natural History (2005) Smithsonian Short-term Fellowship, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2003) NSERC PGSB doctoral Fellowship, UBC (2002-2004) Canada Trust's Friends of the Environment Fund (1999) Rhodes Divisional Scholarships in Science (1999)
Research Interests
My research interests focus on the biogeography and diversification of birds with special emphasis on the Neotropical and Oriental regions. I am specifically interested in the role of geological and climatic events in the buildup of biodiversity and promotion of the latitudinal diversity gradient. Current projects investigate: 1) how rates of morphological and behavioral evolution vary across latitudinal gradients, 2) speciation and extinction rates across latitudinal gradients, 3) the effect of Pleistocene glaciation in promoting speciation in temperate and tropical regions, 4) the roles of dispersal and vicariance in generating New World patterns of endemism, 5) the impact of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama on interchange between Central America and South America, 6) phylogeography of several Neotropical superspecies complexes and 7) utility of avian molecular clocks
PhySim 1.0 Phylogenetic Tree Simulation Package: R functions to simulate birth death phylogenetic trees while correcting for the lag-time to speciation.
GEIGER v. 0.2-3 R functions to estimate rates of character evolution along phylogenetic trees (developed by Luke Harmon).
Publications
2008
Weir, J. T. and Schluter, D. (2008) Is there an avian molecular clock? Molecular Ecology. In press.
Miller, M.J., Bermingham, E., Klicka, J,, Escalante, P. Raposo do Amaral, F.S., Weir, J.T., Winker, K. (2008) Out of Amazonia again and again: Episodic crossing of the Andes promotes diversification in a lowland forest flycatcher. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. In press.
Weir, J. T., Bermingham, E., Miller, M. J., Klicka, J., Gonzalez, M. A. (2008). Phylogeography of a morphologically diverse Neotropical montane species, the
common bush-tanager (Chlorospingus ophthalmicus). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. in press.
