Christopher L. Owen


Entomologist
Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA-ARS
c/o National Museum of Natural History
10th St. & Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20560-0168, USA
christopher.owen@usda.gov

Education

2013 Ph.D., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.

2007 M.S., Marine Biology & Marine Environmental Science, Nova Southeastern Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, FL, USA.

2000 B.S., Environmental Science, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, USA.

Appointments

2019-present Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service

2017-2019 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, United States Department of Energy/Department of Agriculture

2015-2017 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Henry M. Jackson Foundation/U.S. Department of Defense

2013-2016 Research Collaborator, Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History

2013-2015 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Computational Biology Institute, School of Public Health, George Washington University

2007-2013 Graduate Assistant, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

2006-2007 Molecular Laboratory Technician, Department of Entomology, Pennsylvannia State University

Grants and Fellowships

2023 USDA-ARS Administrator-funded Postdoctoral Fellow, Principle Investigator, $140,000

2022 USDA-ARS SCINet and AI Center of Excellence Funded Postdoctoral Fellow, Principle Investigator, $214,064

2021 USDA-ARS/U.S. Potato Industry Grant, Principle Investigator, $55,349

2020 USDA-ARS High Priority Research Items, Principle Investigator, $198,000

2019-2021 USDA-ARS Innovation Grant, Principle Investigator, $24,226

2017-2021 NSF DEB Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster, Senior Investigator, $890,975

2016 Entomological Society of America Early Professional Award, $1,000

2014 Lerner-Gray Marine Research Grant, American Museum of Natural History, $2,000

2013 Symposium and Workshop on New Methods for Phylogenomics and Metagenomics Travel Grant, $750

2011 Graduate Student Research Award, University of Connecticut, $5,640

2011 Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, University of Connecticut, $2,000

2011 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Summer Fellowship Award, University of Connecticut, $2,500

2010 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, $14,769

2010 Systematic Research Fund, The Systematics Association of London, $2,171

2010 Doctoral Dissertation Extraordinary Expense Award, University of Connecticut, $500

2010 Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research, $400

2009 Society of Systematic Biologists Graduate Student Research Award, $1,000

2009 Lawrence R. Penner Endowment Fund, Connecticut Museum of Nat. History, $100

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2022 Bernot, J.P., C.L. Owen, J.M. Wolfe, K. Meland, J. Olesen, K.A. Crandall, 2022. Major revisions in pancrustacean phylogeny with recommendations for resolving challenging nodes (submitted Molecular Biology and Evolution).

2022 Owen, C.L., D.C. Marshall, E.J. Wade, R. Meister, G. Goemans, K. Kunte, M. Moulds, K. Hill, M. Villet, T.H. Pham, M. Kortyna, E.M. Lemmon, A.R. Lemmon, C. Simon, 2022. Detecting and removing sample contamination in phylogenomic data: an example and its implications for Cicadidae phylogeny (Insecta: Hemiptera). Systematic Biology 71(6): 1504-1523.

2022 Owen, C.L. and G.L. Miller, 2022. Phylogenomics of Aphididae: Deep relationships between subfamilies clouded by gene tree discordance, introgression and the gene tree anomaly zone. Systematic Entomology 47(3): 470-486.

2021 Dearlove, B., S. Tovanabutra, C.L. Owen, E. Lewitus, E. Sanders-Buell, M. Bose, A. O’Sullivan, G. Kijak, Y. Li, S. Miller, K. Poltavee, J. Lee, L. Bonar, E. Harbolick, B. Ahani, P. Pham, H. Kibuuka, L. Maganga, S. Nitayaphan, F. Sawe, J. Kim, L.A. Eller, R. Gramzinski, S. Vasan, N. Michael, M. Robb, M. Rolland, RV217 Study Team, 2021. Factors influencing estimates of HIV-1 acute infection timing using BEAST. PLOS Computational Biology 17(2): e1008537.

2020 Owen, C.L., D.B. Stern, S. Hilton, K.A. Crandall, 2020. Hemiptera phylogenomic resources: tree-based orthology prediction and conserved exon identification. Molecular Ecology Resources 20(5): 1346-1360.

2020 Skvarla, M.J., M. Kramer, C.L. Owen, G.L. Miller, 2020. Reexamination of Rhopalosiphum (Hemiptera: Aphididae) using linear discriminant analysis to determine the validity of synonymized species, with some new synonymies and distribution data. Biodiversity Data Journal 8: e49102.

2020 Rolland, M., S. Tovanabutra, B. Dearlove, Y. Li, C.L. Owen, E. Sanders-Buell, M. Bose, A. O’Sullivan, G. Kijak, S. Miller, K. Poltavee, J. Lee, L. Bonar, E. Harbolick, B. Ahani, P. Pham, H. Kibuuka, L. Maganga, S. Nitayaphan, F.K. Sawe, L.A. Eller, R. Gramzinski, J.H. Kim, N.L. Michael, M.L. Robb, RV217 Study Team, 2020. Molecular dating and viral load growth rates suggested that the eclipse phase lasted about a week in HIV-1 infected adults in East Africa and Thailand. PLoS pathogens 16(2): e1008179.

2019 Riddick, E.W., G.L. Miller, C.L. Owen, G. Bauchan, J.M. Schmidt, T. Gariepy, R.L. Brown, M. J. Grodowitz, 2019. Discovery of Aphis ruborum (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Aphelinus varipes (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) on cultivated strawberry in Mississippi, USA. Journal of Insect Science 19(3): 1-6.

2019 Ewers, C., C.L. Owen, M. Perez-Losada, J. Hoeg, H. Glenner, B.K.K. Chan, K.A. Crandall, 2019. Towards a barnacle tree of life: integrating diverse phylogenetic efforts into a comprehensive hypothesis of thecostracan evolution. PeerJ, 7: e7387.

2019 Krebs, S.J., Y.D. Kwon, C.A. Schramm, W.H. Law, G. Donofrio, K.H. Zhou, S. Gift, V. Dussupt, I.S. Georgiev, S. Schatzle, J.R. McDaniel, Y. Lai, M. Sastry, B. Zhang, M.C. Jarosinski, A. Ransier, A.L. Chenine, M. Asokan, R.T. Bailer, M. Bose, A. Cagigi, J. Gorman, F. Laboune, M.K. Louder, K. McKee, L. Mendez, M.A. Moody, A.M. O’Sullivan, C.L. Owen, D. Peng, R. Rawi, E. Sanders-Buell, C. Shen, A.R. Shiakolas, T. Stephens, Y. Tsybovsky, C. Tucker, R. Verardi, K. Wang, J. Zhou, T. Zhou, G. Georgiou, S.M. Alam, B.F. Haynes, M. Rolland, G.R. Matyas, V.R Polonis, A.B. McDermott, D.C. Douek, L. Shapiro, S. Tovanabutra, N.L. Michael, J.R. Mascola, M.L. Robb, P.D. Kwong, N.A. Doria-Rose, 2019. Longitudinal analysis reveals early development of three MPER-directed neutralizing antibody lineages from an HIV-1 infected individual. Immunity 50(3): 667-691.

2018 Marshall, D.C., M. Moulds, K.B.R. Hill, B.W. Price, E.J. Wade, C.L. Owen, G. Goemans, K. Marathe, V. Sarkar, J.R. Cooley, A.F. Sanborn, K. Kunte, M.H. Villet, C. Simon, 2018. A molecular phylogeny of the cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) with a review of tribe and subfamily classification. Zootaxa 4424(1): 001-064.

2018 Wentworth, S.A., K. Thede, V. Aravindabose, I. Monroe, A.W. Thompson, N. Molyneaux, C.L. Owen, J.R. Burns, A. Gonzalez-vicente, J.L. Garvin, R.K. Packer, 2018. Transcriptomic analysis of changes in gene expression of immune proteins of gill tissue in response to low environmental temperature in fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics 25: 109-117.

2018 Rolland, M., B. Dearlove, Y. Li, S. Tovanabutra, C.L. Owen, E. Sanders-Buell, M. Bose, A.M. O’Sullivan, H. Kibuuka, L. Maganga, S. Nitayaphan, L.A. Eller, N. Michael, M. Robb, 2018. The Eclipse Phase Lasted a Week in HIV-1-infected Adults in East Africa and Thailand. AIDS RESEARCH AND HUMAN RETROVIRUSES 34: 62-62.

2017 Stern, D.B., J. Breinholt, C. Pedraza, M. Lopez-Mejia, C.L. Owen, H. Bracken-Grissom, J.W. Fetzner, K.A. Crandall, 2017. Phylogenetic evidence from freshwater crayfishes that cave adaptation is not an evolutionary dead-end. Evolution 71(10): 2522-2532.

2017 Owen, C.L., D.C. Marshall, K.B.R. Hill, C. Simon, 2017. How the aridification of Australia structured the biogeography and influenced the diversification of a large lineage of Australian cicadas. Systematic Biology 66(4): 569-589.

2016 Owen, C.L. and M.S. Moulds, 2016. Systematics and phylogeny of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta Goding and Froggatt and allied genera (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettini). Records of the Australian Museum 68(4): 117-200.

2015 Hinchliff, C.E., S.A. Smith, J.F. Allman, J.G. Burleigh, R. Chaudhary, L.M. Coghill, K.A. Crandall, J. Deng, B.T. Drew, R. Gazis, K. Gude, D.S. Hibbett, L.A. Katz, H.D. Laughinghouse, E.J. McTavish, P.E. Midford, C.L. Owen, R.H. Ree, J.A. Rees, D.E. Soltis, T. Williams, K.A. Cranston, 2015. Synthesis of phylogeny and taxonomy for a comprehensive tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(41): 12764-12769.

2015 Ellis, E., D.C. Marshall, K.B.R. Hill, C.L. Owen, P. Kamp, C. Simon, 2015. Phylogeography of six North Island, New Zealand cicadas and their relationships to multiple biogeographic boundaries suggests a re-evaluation of the Taupo Line. Journal of Biogeography 42: 1761-1775.

2015 Ruiz-Arce, R., C.L. Owen, D.B. Thomas, N.B. Barr, B.A. McPheron, 2015. Phylogeographic structure in Anastrepha ludens populations inferred with mtDNA sequencing. Journal of Economic Entomology 108(3): 1324-1336.

2015 Owen, C.L., D.C. Marshall, K.B.R. Hill, C. Simon, 2015. The phylogenetic utility of acetyltransferase (ARD1) and glutaminyl tRNA synthetase (QtRNA) for reconstructing Cenozoic relationships as exemplified by the large Australian cicada Pauropsalta generic complex. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83: 258-277.

2015 Owen, C.L., H. Bracken-Grissom, D. Stern, and K.A. Crandall, 2015. The synthetic phylogeny of freshwater crayfish: Insights for conservation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 370(1662), 20140009.

2014 Sustaita, D., C.L. Owen, J.C. Villarreal, M.A. Rubega, 2014. Morphometric and DNA tools for sexing California populations of loggerhead shrikes. The Southwestern Naturalist 59(4): 562-569.

2012 Ruiz-Arce, R., N.B. Barr, C.L. Owen, D.B. Thomas, B.A. McPheron, 2012. Phylogeography of West Indian fruit fly, Anastrepha obliqua, inferred with mtDNA sequencing. Journal of Economic Entomology 105: 2147-2160.

2011 Moulds, M.S. and C.L. Owen, 2011. Pauropsalta walkeri, a new species of cicada (Homoptera: Cicadidae: Cicadinae) from northern Australia. Australian Entomologist 38: 145-154.

2009 Owen, C.L., C.G. Messing, G.W. Rouse, M.S. Shivji, 2009. Using a combined approach to explain the morphological and ecological diversity in Phanogenia gracilis Hartlaub, 1893 (Echinodermata: Crinoidea) sensu lato: two species or intraspecific variation? Marine Biology 156: 1517-1529.

2016 Busby, B.,…C.L. Owen et al., 2016. Closing gaps between open software and public data in a hackathon setting: User-centered software prototyping. F1000Research 5:672.

Presentations

Invited Presentations

2019 Owen, C.L., 2019. Inferring the phylogenies of Cicadidae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) and Aphidoidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha): progress and pitfalls. Invited oral presentation. Early Career Professionals Symposium, Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch Meeting, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia.

2019 Owen, C.L., 2019. Hemiptera comparative genomics, phylogenomics, and biodiversity informatics. Invited oral presentation. Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA-ARS & Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution NMNH, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

2018 Owen, C.L., 2018. Inferring the phylogenies of Cicadidae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) and Aphidoidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha): progress and pitfalls. Invited oral presentation. Entomological Society of Washington, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

2016 Owen, C.L., 2016. Phylogeny of Peracarida (Arthropoda: Crustacea) and its application to genome size evolution and conservation. Invited oral presentation. IX Brazilian Congress of Crustaceans, Crato, Ceará State, Brazil.Declined

2016 Owen, C.L., 2016. The utility of insect collections for comparative genomics studies. Invited oral presentation. Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida. Declined

2015 Owen, C.L., 2015. Exploring, improving, and evaluating anchored hybrid enrichment data support for relationships within the Family Cicadidae. Invited oral presentation. Hemipteroid Insect Phylogenetics Workshop, Champaign, Illinois.

2015 Owen, C.L., 2015. Integrating taxonomy, sequence data, phylogeny, and genomes, across independent databases to generate a comprehensive view of Hemiptera phylogeny and systematics. Invited oral presentation. Hemipteroid Insect Phylogenetics Workshop, Champaign, Illinois.

2012 Owen, C.L., 2012. Diversification and biogeography of the Australian cicada genus. Invited oral presentation. International Congress of Entomology 2012, Daegu, Korea. Declined

2012 Owen, C.L., 2010. Diversification and evolution of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Invited oral presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting 2010, Divergence Time Symposium, San Diego, California.

2012 Owen, C.L., 2010. Dating two rapid cicada radiations: the tribe Cicadettini and the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Invited oral presentation. Northeastern Symposium on Evolutionary Divergence Time, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Presentations and Posters

2022 Owen, C.L. and G.L. Miller, 2022. Phylogenomics of Aphididae: Deep relationships between subfamilies clouded by gene tree discordance, introgression and the gene tree anomaly zone. Virtual Presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.

2019 Riddick, E., G.L. Miller, C.L. Owen, G.R. Bauchan, J.M. Schmidt, T. Gariepy, R.L. Brown, M.J. Grodowitz, 2019. Interactions of Aphis ruborum and its natural enemies on strawberry in southeastern USA. Oral Presentation. International Symposium Ecology of Aphidophaga 14, Montreal, Canada.

2018 Owen, C.L., G.L. Miller, 2018. Revision of Utamphorophora Knowlton (Aphididae: Macrosiphini) and testing generic boundaries within Macrosiphini with phylogeny and convolutional neural networks. Poster Presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.

2017 Owen, C.L., B. Dearlove, S. Tovanabutra, E. Sanders-Buell, L. Maganga, S. Nitayaphan, F. Sawe, H. Kibuuka, N. Michael, M. Robb, M. Rolland, RV217 Study Team, 2017. HIV-1 sequences from early infection predict the age of infection. Poster Presentation. HIV Dynamics and Evolution, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

2016 Owen, C.L., 2016. Phylogenomic estimate of the Cicadidae (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea): identifying contaminated/paralogous locus copies and exploring the utility of Hemiptera and cicada 1:1 ortholog sets in pest Hemiptera lineages. Oral presentation. International Congress of Entomology, Orlando, Florida.

2016 Rolland, M., C.L. Owen, 2016. Super-infection and development of MPER-specific neutralization breadth in subject 40512 from the acute infection cohort RV217. Poster presentation. HIV Research for Prevention, Chicago, Illinois.

2014 Owen, C.L., 2014. Phylogenomic estimation of the Hemiptera phylogeny and their co-diversification with plants. Oral presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

2014 Bracken-Grissom, H., C.L. Owen, K.A. Crandall, 2014. Comparative decapod genomics and their utility in developing target enrichment probes. Poster presentation. Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

2014 Bracken-Grissom, H., C.L. Owen, D. Felder, and K. Crandall, 2014. The synthetic phylogeny of the decapod crustaceans: integration of taxonomy and phylogenies. Poster presentation. Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii.

2013 Owen, C.L., 2013. Reappraisal of the Hemiptera phylogeny using supermatrices and phylogenomic data. Oral presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Austin, Texas.

2012 Owen, C.L., 2012. Diversification and biogeography of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Oral presentation. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Knoxville, Tennessee.

2012 Owen, C.L., 2012. Diversification and biogeography of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Oral presentation. Evolution Meeting, Ernst Mayr Award Symposium, Ottawa, Canada.

2011 Owen, C.L., 2011. The utility of 454 sequence data for primer design and phylogenomic analyses. Oral presentation. UCONN Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium.

2010 Owen, C.L., 2010. Diversification and evolution of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Oral presentation. Evolution Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

2010 Owen, C.L., 2010. Evolution of the relaxed-clock and molecular dating with examples from the largest Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Oral presentation. Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Auchenorrhyncha Taxonomy Workshop Symposium, Albany, NY.

2010 Owen, C.L., 2010. Diversification of the Australian cicada genus Pauropsalta. Oral presentation. UConn Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Symposium.

2008 Owen, C.L., 2008. Molecular systematics and diversification of the Pauropsalta Goding and Froggatt, 1904. Oral presentation. Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Auchenorrhyncha Taxonomy Workshop Symposium, Storrs, Connecticut.

2007 Ruiz, R., C.L. Owen, B.A. McPheron, J. da Silva-Miller, D.B. Thomas, 2007. Phylogeographic structure of Anastrepha ludens and A. obliqua: evidence from COI and ND6 mitochondrial regions. Oral presentation. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.

2006 Ruiz, R., B.A. McPheron, A. Tu, E. Deutsch, C.L. Owen, M. Aluja, J. Pinero, 2006. Sequence- based analysis of population structure in Anastrepha obliqua. Poster presentation. 7th International Symposium on Fruit Flies of Economic Importance/6th Meeting of the Working Group on Fruit Flies, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

2006 Owen, C.L., C.G. Messing, G.W. Rouse, M.S. Shivji, 2006. Delimiting species of crinoids: comparing new mtDNA phylogenies with current species designations and reevaluating overlapping morphological characters. Oral presentation. 12th International Echinoderm Conference, Durham, New Hampshire.

Awards and Nominations

2020 Semi-finalist recognition, ARSX competition, United States Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service

2014 Nominated finalist, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Best Dissertation Prize, University of Connecticut

2012 Presidents Prize, Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Section, Entomological Society of America

2012 Teaching award finalist, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology teaching award, University of Connecticut

2012 Nominated finalist, Ernst Mayr Award, Society of Systematic Biologists

Ad-hoc Journal Referee

2013-present Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, BMC Evolutionary Biology, Check List, Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, Genome Biology and Evolution, Journal of Biogeography, Journal of Economic Entomology, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology Resources, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, PeerJ, PeerJ Computer Science, Scientific Reports, Systematic Entomology, The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington

Professional Affiliations

2010-present Entomological Society of America

2007-present Society for the Study of Evolution

2007-present Society of Systematic Biologists