Dr. Brian Counterman Seminar Title: “Dissecting the regulatory architecture of adaptive divergence and plasticity on butterfly wings” Bio: Brian Counterman is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Museum of Natural History at Auburn University. His lab group studies the developmental and genomic changes that drive adaptation and speciation. Using butterflies as a model system, his group dissects how wing-pattern diversity arises, how mimicry evolves, and how gene regulation, chromosomal architecture, and introgression shape rapid radiations. His work integrates comparative genomics, developmental biology, and field studies of natural hybrid zones to reveal how new adaptive traits and new species originate in nature. Currently, his research team is exploring the regulatory genomic changes involved in plastic seasonal variation in butterfly wing color patterns and how such changes influence hybridization and speciation.