Rate My Professor Rachael Dudaniec

Rachael Dudaniec is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University, Sydney, where she leads the Landscape Genetics Lab. She obtained her PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Flinders University in 2008, First Class Honours in Biology in 2004, and Bachelor of Science in Biodiversity and Conservation in 2003 from the same institution. Her postdoctoral appointments include positions at the University of British Columbia, Canada (2008-2011), University of Queensland, Australia (2011-2012), and as Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at Lund University, Sweden (2013-2015). At Macquarie University, she served as Lecturer in Biological Sciences from 2015 to 2017, Senior Lecturer from 2018 to 2024, and has been Associate Professor since 2025.

Dudaniec employs genomic sequencing methods including RADseq, RNAseq, whole genome sequencing, metabarcoding, and transcriptomics, integrated with spatial and ecological field data, to study environmental effects on gene flow, local adaptation, and pathogen dynamics in natural populations. Her research addresses how land-use changes and climate variation impact genetic connectivity, evolutionary processes, health, diversity, and adaptive capacity in species such as bumblebees, honeybees, damselflies, grasshoppers, Darwin's finches, and reptiles. Notable publications include 'Genomic introgression between critically endangered and stable species of Darwin's tree finches on the Galapagos Islands' (Evolutionary Applications, 2025), 'Landscape and climate-associated selection in the native and widespread bumblebee, Bombus terrestris' (Molecular Ecology, 2025), 'Landscape-wide metabarcoding shows interactions among the gut microbiome and pollen diversity in the invasive bumblebee, Bombus terrestris' (Ecology and Evolution, 2025), 'Fitness and morphology support genetic differentiation across different geographic scales in a native insect utilising native vs. invasive host plants' (Ecology and Evolution, 2025), and 'Latitudinal clines in sexual selection, sexual size dimorphism, and sex-specific genetic dispersal during a poleward range expansion' (Journal of Animal Ecology, 2022). Her work, cited over 3,192 times on Google Scholar, informs conservation and management of ecologically and economically significant species. She has presented public lectures including 'Insect evolution in response to environmental gradients' (2020) and 'Understanding insect evolutionary responses to shifting climatic gradients' (2019).