Jason S. McLachlan
Associate Professor
574-631-1850
Email
Photo: Barbara Johnston
Welcome! Research in the McLachlan Lab focuses on the dynamics of plant populations faced with large scale environmental change. The abundance, distribution and, in many cases, survival of species in the next century will be shaped by an unprecedented combination of human land-use, climate change, and changing atmospheric chemistry. Anticipating these trends is difficult, but we can often gain insight by examining how populations have responded to similar environmental perturbations in the past. Evidence for past population shifts comes from the physical traces individuals leave behind (in paleoecological data such as fossil pollen in sediments and tree-rings) and from the genetic structures of modern and past populations. The McLachlan Lab gathers these fragmentary records of population change and links them to environmental and biological processes using statistical models. Explore our research, lab members, and publications pages to learn more about us and the work we do.
Congratulations to our lab!
- 2026-08-28: Congratulations to graduate student, Hannah O’Grady, for being awarded the 2026 “EFI Futures Outstanding Student Presentation Award” for her poster on “What can long-term data show us about uncertainties in forest models?”
- 2026-06-30: Congratulations to Cazimir Kowalski for the completion of their Master’s degree!
- 2026-04-30: Undergraduate Finley Shinnick presented her work at the University of Notre Dame College of Science Joint Annual Meeting and received the best presentation award! See details here.
- 2025-10-31: Undergraduates Lily Church and Finley Shinnick presented their work at the University of Notre Dame Fall Undergraduate Research Fair! See details here.
- 2025-05-01: Alyssa Willson won two student awards! Alyssa is the recipient of the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Award in Science by the College of Science and the Exemplary Graduate Research Career which recognizes a student who best personifies the department’s mission of advancing biological knowledge by demonstrable excellence in research, educating the next generation of leaders in the life sciences, and applying their findings to solve the grand challenges that will shape the future of human health and the environment. Congratulations Alyssa!
- 2025-04-14: Congratulations to graduate student Hannah O’Grady who received an Honorable Mention for her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program submission.
- 2025-03-28: Congratulations to Alyssa Willson for the successful defense of her PhD on “The ecological time machine: Towards an understanding of vegetation-climate relationships across scales.”
- See the full list of lab successes HERE