David L. Des Marais

David L. Des Marais is the Amgen Career Development Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the physiological and genetic basis of plant response to environmental cues, utilizing tools from molecular, quantitative, and population genetics. Des Marais investigates how these mechanisms influence plant breeding and evolutionary change. His work explores plant-environment interactions, with a particular emphasis on understanding the constraints and opportunities for adaptation. He is affiliated with the Des Marais Group, and his research website provides further details on his projects and publications.

David L. Des Marais is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in Plant Physiology, Genetics, and Evolution. His research explores how plants adapt to environmental stresses through genomic and physiological mechanisms. He investigates genotype-by-environment interactions, natural variation in stress-responsive genes, and the evolutionary implications of gene duplication and alternative splicing. His work also examines the role of plant hydraulics in ecosystem function and the evolution of traits like water-use efficiency and abiotic stress tolerance. Des Marais uses model organisms such as Arabidopsis thaliana and Brachypodium distachyon to uncover genetic and ecological drivers of adaptation.