Dr. Vanessa Koelling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science at Auburn University at Montgomery. She is a plant evolutionary biologist, which means that she studies how plant populations change over time in response to new environmental conditions. Within the field of evolutionary biology, she is particularly interested in the evolution of plant mating systems, the mechanisms of plant speciation, and in plant evolutionary genetics. Her work aims to understand which evolutionary mechanisms are most important in plant mating system evolution and speciation, and to understand the causal genetic changes underlying plant adaptations. She has studied these topics in a variety of plant systems, but has recently begun studying Alabama's native azaleas. Her current project is an investigation of the population genetics, ecophysiology, and evolution of Rhododendron cumberlandense and Rhododendron prunifolium.