Brandon Hendrickson

• Ecology
• Evolution
• Botany
• Biostatistics
• Bioinformatics

Research Interests

"Life finds a way."

This quote from Jurassic Park, my favorite work of fiction, is spoken by Ian Malcolm, my favorite fictional scientist, as he reflects on the remarkable resilience of living organisms in the face of stress and catastrophe. As an evolutionary ecologist, my research seeks to answer the question behind this idea: How does life find a way?

My contribution to answering the above question is uncovering the genetic basis for adaptive traits, specifically in herbaceous angiosperms of Eastern North America. My lab combines modern genomic approaches, common garden experiments, and field-based sampling to identify the targets and agents of selection in natural plant populations. I work with invasive plant species as they are significant to conservation and represent unique case studies of repeated evolution in their native and introduced range(s).

Evolutionary ecology is, at its core, a historical science. We are attempting to explain how and why patterns of trait variation emerged within and between populations. A central focus of my lab is the use of herbarium specimens, plants collected decades or even centuries ago and preserved in museums, as archives of genetic information. These historical collections serve as biological breadcrumbs, allowing us to trace which traits and genes have changed, when those changes occurred, and how environmental conditions may have influenced their rise or decline. By leveraging this window into the past, we can better understand how life has adapted to changing environments, and, hopefully, how it may respond to challenges in the future. 

Selected Publications

• Hendrickson, B.T., Benterou, J.A., Martin, R., & Sexton, J.P. (2025). Climatic determinants of plant phenology in vernal pool habitats. American Journal of Botany, 112, e70064. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.70064
• Hendrickson, B.T., Stamps, C., Patterson, C.M., Strickland, H., Foster, M., Kim, P., & Kooyers, N.J. (2025). Evolution of drought resistance strategies following the introduction of white clover (Trifolium repens L.). Annals of Botany. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf037
• Battlay, P., Hendrickson, B.T., Mendez-Reneau, J.I. et al. (2025). Haploblocks contribute to parallel climate adaptation following global invasion of a cosmopolitan plant. Nature Ecology & Evolution.
  doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02751-2