Awards & Honors

My research is driven by a combination of empirical genetic studies, novel statistical analyses, and mathematical modeling, all of which possess one overarching theme: understanding how ecological and evolutionary processes create and maintain biodiversity. My areas of research interest include population genetics, the genetics of speciation, intracellular symbiont evolution, microbial ecology, and population dynamics. Much of my empirical work has been conducted on globally distributed hydrothermal vent taxa and their microbial endosymbionts. My thesis and related work at MBARI included defining the sixth known hydrothermal vent biogeographic province as well as several population genetic studies of vent fauna. Much of this work revolves around the identification of species boundaries and the study of hybrid zones at hydrothermal vents.

During my postdoc, I developed a novel pyrosequencing approach for population genetic studies of microbial symbionts. My work on hydrothermal vent symbionts clarifies the dynamics of genome evolution in intracellular symbionts using two closely related but differentially transmitted symbiont taxa as comparative model systems. Bathymodiolid mussel symbionts are laterally acquired, and as such, both population genetic and phylogenetic analyses suggest high levels of within-host diversity and high rates of recombination. In contrast, vesicomyid symbionts are predominantly vertically transmitted and consequently show low intra-host diversity and lower levels of homologous recombination. I have also been involved in microbial diversity studies from a variety of niches.

My statistical background includes the development of efficient (i.e., Monte Carlo) Bayesian statistical methods to study admixed populations, the application and development of Markov Chain Monte Carlo population genetic algorithms (e.g., hypothesis testing and model adequacy), and posterior simulation-based methods for hypothesis testing in phylogenetics. My mathematical modeling experience includes the development of a nonlinear model to study the interaction of hunting policy and reproductive behavior in African game species. The recommendations from this body of work are currently being implemented in the Selous game reserve in Tanzania. I have created several software packages that aid in the analysis of genetic data. One such package, Phoenix, was developed to enable population genetic analysis of large, multilocus datasets (e.g., tens of thousands of sequence reads) produced by 454 pyrosequencing.

Workshop on Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods in Evolutionary Biology

1998

American society of ichthyology and herpetology conference
Guelph, Canada
Parallel evolution of Fundulus waccamensis of Phelps Lake and Lake Waccamaw

2001

Second international symposium on hydrothermal vent and seep biology
Brest, France
Gene flow of the deep-sea tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae from the Juan de Fuca Ridge

Evolution
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
Bayesian estimation of cytonuclear covariances

Third international symposium on hydrothermal vent and seep biology
SCRIPPS Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA
One-way gene flow of Ridgeia piscesae between offset hydrothermal ridges

The 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology
Boston, MA, USA
Heirarchical population structure of Bathymodiolin mussel symbionts from hydrothermal vents in two ocean basins

The 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology
Boston, MA, USA
Pyrosequencing analysis of endosymbiont population structure: co-occurrence of divergent bacterial symbiont lineages in a single host clam

Boston Bacterial Meeting
Boston, MA, USA
Pyrosequencing analysis of endosymbiont population structure: co-occurrence of divergent bacterial symbiont lineages in a single host clam

The 4th International Symposium on Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems
Okinawa, Japan
Bathymodiolin symbiont population structure in two ocean basins: an application of next-generation pyrosequencing to microbial population genetics

Station Biologique de Roscoff
Roscoff, France
Workshop on the Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Vesicomyid and Mytilid Bivalves
Initiated by ChEss, a field project of the Census of Marine Life
Coalescent theory used to investigate the phylogenies of Vesicomyid and Bathymodiolin symbionts

Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, USA
Population Genetics and Evolution of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent and Cold Seep Symbionts: A Tale of the Microbial Ecological Detective

Korea Polar Research Institute
Incheon, Korea
Population Genetics and Evolution of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent and Cold Seep Symbionts

C. L. Van Dover, S. E. Humphris, D. Fornari, C. M. Cavanaugh, R. Collier, S. K. Goffredi, J. Hashimoto, M. D. Lilley, A. L. Reysenbach, T. M. Shank, K. L. Von Damm, A. Banta, R. M. Gallant, D. Götz, D. Green, J. Hall, T. L. Harmer, L. A. Hurtado, P. Johnson, Z. P. McKiness, C. Meredith, E. Olson, I. L. Pan, M. Turnipseed, Y. Won, C. R. Young, R. C. Vrijenhoek 2001. Biogeography and ecological setting of Indian Ocean hydrothermal vents. Science v. 294, 818-823.
doi: 10.1126/science.1064574
click here to request a reprint

C. R. Young, T. J. S. Merritt, R. G. Vogt, R. C. Wilkerson and J. M. Quattro. 2005. Intron retention identifies a malarial vector within the Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) albitaris complex (Diptera: Culicidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution v. 35, 719-724.
doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2005.03.009
click here to request a reprint

Shannon B. Johnson, C. R. Young, William J. Jones, Anders Warén, and R. C. Vrijenhoek. 2006. Migration, isolation, and speciation of hydrothermal vent limpets (Gastropoda; Lepetodrilidae) across the Blanco Transform Fault. Biological Bulletin v. 210, 140-157.
click here to request a reprint

C. R. Young, F. J. Stewart, C. M. Cavanaugh. 2008. Lateral symbiont acquisition in a maternally transmitted chemosynthetic clam endosymbiosis. Molecular Biology and Evolution, v. 25:4, 673-87.
doi: 10.1093/molbev/msn010
click here to request a reprint

T. M. Caro, C. R. Young, A. E. Cauldwell and D. D. E. Brown. 2009. Animal breeding systems and big game hunting: models and application. Biological Conservation v. 142:4, 909-929.
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.12.018
click here to request a reprint

C. R. Young*. 2009. MrAICM: a stabilized model discrimination utility for use with MrBayes. Submitted.

C. R. Young* and P. Towbin, 2009. The effects of infanticide, parental care and incidental take on sustainability of hunted populations. Submitted.

I consider the dissemination of scientific information, both within the scientific community and to the general public, a high priority. At Harvard University, I have mentored two graduate students: F. J. Stewart, currently a postdoctoral associate at MIT, and Kristina Fontanez, currently a 5th year graduate student at Harvard University. I have also mentored one undergraduate student, Kirsten Kester, who recently graduated from Harvard University. Kirsten was recently awarded a Hoopes Prize for her undergraduate thesis under my mentorship. Kirsten's award was one of only two such prizes awarded in 2009 to students in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Only 24 Hoopes prizes out of a total of 83 prizes awarded university-wide were science-related theses.

At MBARI in 2006, I developed and taught a workshop on MCMC methods in population genetics that was attended by students and senior researchers (~30 participants) from institutions such as MBARI, UCSC, Berkeley and Stanford. I conducted a similar workshop geared towards phylogenetics in Seoul, South Korea (59 participants from 14 institutions). In addition, computer programs that I have written as a service to the general deep-sea community (e.g., JADE and JAMN) are freely available on the web. I routinely give public lectures on deep-sea hydrothermal vent research. For example, I have given lectures at Hammond Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina. Through such endeavors, I attempt to disseminate my expertise and experience both within and across scientific disciplines and hope to teach and inspire those who are not career scientists, but who want to learn more about ecology, evolution and deep-sea research.