Author: John Cooley and Chris Simon

John Cooley has taught at the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Wesleyan University, The Ohio State University and the University of Rhode Island. He taught introductory courses, writing courses, and a variety of different ecology and evolution courses. He also experiments with online and interactive teaching technologies. Chris Simon is the senior research scientist of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of the University of Connecticut. She employs molecular phylogenomic trees to answer questions related to the origin, spread, and conservation of biological diversity. Simon has used cicadas and their microbial and fungal symbionts as model organisms. She has a special interest in 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas, New Zealand cicadas, and cicada deep level relationships. She and her lab group have used NZ cicadas to explore the effect of landscape and climate change on biodiversity, periodical cicadas to understand the effect of life history on speciation, and cicada-symbiont consortia to understand how biodiversity spreads globally. Her early work was notable for elucidating the importance of accommodating patterns of molecular evolution (especially among site rate variation) during the construction of evolutionary trees. Her review papers have acted as a bridge between theoreticians and practitioners of phylogenetic tree building. She was the Editor of the Journal Systematic Biology (2001-2004), and President of the Society for Systematic Biologists in 2008.

A tree trunk in the left side foreground has four cicadas visible. The US Capitol building is visible in the background.

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Opinion | Billions of Cicadas Will Emerge From Underground in a Rare Double-Brood Convergence

“From late April through June 2024, the largest brood of 13-year cicadas, known as Brood XIX, will co-emerge with a midwestern brood of 17-year cicadas, Brood XIII,” Cooley and Simon write.

April 29, 2024

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Author: John Cooley and Chris Simon

Opinion | Billions of Cicadas Will Emerge From Underground in a Rare Double-Brood Convergence

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