Position
Academic Background  
Sample Courses  
Teaching Philosophy   
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights  
Selected Scholarly Presentations

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Position            

• Assistant Professor of Biology

Academic Background         

• Indiana University
  Ph.D., in Evolutionary Biology, 2002
• University of Chicago
  B.A. in Biological Sciences, 1992 

Sample Courses Taught at Providence College   

• General Biology
• Ethnobotany
• Introductory Botany
• Field Botany

Teaching Philosophy            

I believe that the largest impact that I as an individual have on society is through my teaching. It is through teaching that I hope to give my students the skills and perspective they will need to make informed choices. In all of my teaching experiences, the most rewarding part is when students make the connection between what they have just learned and their own personal experiences such as why they should wash their hands, use antibiotics properly or decide whether or not to buy transgenic foods. I value teaching because I value an informed, democratic society.

Research & Interests               

I am a population biologist with particular interests in how plant populations evolve. How does one plant population thrive while another dwindles? Why are some plants hermaphrodite while others are unisexual? How does plant sexuality interact with weediness? In order to answer these questions, research in my lab includes field work on natural populations of plants as well as genetic marker analysis in the laboratory.

Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2006-2007
• Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS (UMR 5175), Montpellier, France
  Chateaubriand Fellow, 2005
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
  Research Associate, 2002-2004

Publication Highlights

• Bailey, M.F. and L.F. Delph in press. Sex-ratio evolution in nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecy when restoration is a threshold trait. Genetics.
• Bailey, M.F. and L.F. Delph 2007. A field guide to models of sex-ratio evolution in gynodioecious species. Oikos on-line early.
• Delph, L.F., P. Touzet and M.F. Bailey 2007. Merging theory and mechanism in studies of gynodioecy. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22: 17-24.
• Bailey, M.F. and D.E. McCauley 2006. The effects of inbreeding, outbreeding, and long distance gene flow on survivorship in North American populations of Silene vulgaris. Journal of Ecology 94: 98-109.
• Bailey, M.F. and D.E. McCauley. 2005. Offspring sex ratio under inbreeding and outbreeding in a gynodioecious plant. Evolution 59(2): 99-107.
• Bailey, M.F., L.F. Delph and C.M. Lively 2003. Modeling gynodioecy: novel scenarios for maintaining polymorphism. American Naturalist 161(5):762-776.
• Bailey, M.F. 2002. A cost of restoration of male fertility in a gynodioecious species, Lobelia siphilitica. Evolution 56(11):2178-2186.
• Delph, L.F., M. F. Bailey, and D.L. Marr 1999. Seed provisioning in gynodioecious Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae). American Journal of Botany 86(1): 140-144.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• Bailey, M.F. 2007. David Lloyd and the Ecological Context of Breeding Systems. Invited Symposium Presentation, Society for the Study of Evolution meetings, Christchurch, NZ.
• Bailey, M.F. 2006. Metapopulation dynamics and rare advantage in plant breeding systems. Invited talk, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island.
• Bailey, M.F. 2006. How pollen flow affects fitness and sex ratio in introduced populations of Silene vulgaris. Invited talk, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California.
• Bailey, M.F. 2005. How gene flow affects fitness and sex ratio in an introduced species, Silene vulgaris. Invited talk, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lille, France.
• Bailey, M.F. and David E. McCauley 2003. Geographic patterns of inbreeding depression in an invasive species. Contributed paper, Society for the Study of Evolution meetings, Chico, CA.
• Bailey, M.F., L.F. Delph and C.M. Lively 2000. Modeling gynodioecy: novel scenarios for maintaining polymorphism. Contributed paper, Society for the Study of Evolution meetings, Bloomington, IN.
  

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