Jeff Maltas

Start Date

July 2026

Graduate Program Affiliations

• Biological Sciences (BISI): Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (BEES)

Research Interests

My group uses a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches to study the short-term eco-evolutionary dynamics that emerge in large, rapidly evolving populations such as bacteria, yeast, and cancer. We leverage recent technological advances that have revolutionized our ability to study complex, evolving systems with unprecedented resolution.

Work from multiple disciplines – including ecology, statistical physics, and economics – reveals that complex systems are often dominated by emergent behavior not easily recognizable from the behavior of the constituent parts. In a similar spirit, using tools from population genetics, game theory, and statistical physics, we aim to understand how evolution at the population-level emerges from its constituent parts: competition/cooperation between lineages, population density, spatial heterogeneity, and fluctuating environments.

Critically, many of the most challenging public health concerns worldwide are the result of evolving diseases such as cancer, COVID-19, and antibiotic resistance. As such it is imperative to translate our understanding of these fundamental processes into a testable theoretical framework to help us better forecast, and ultimately control, the evolution of these systems.