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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there, there is an XML version available for digesting as well.
Pages
Zac Tobias
Evolutionary biologist studying how aquatic organisms respond and adapt to environmental change.
Posts
galleries
BC Fieldwork 2024
Field sites, sampling days, and team moments from British Columbia in 2024.
BC Fieldwork 2025
Stickleback fieldwork across British Columbia during the 2025 field season.
Just fun :)
A few photos from outside the lab and field season.
Landscape Genetics DGS 2017
Amphibian fieldwork from the 2017 Landscape Genetics Distributed Graduate Seminar.
Masters Research Photos
Field and laboratory moments from my master’s research in New Zealand.
PhD Research Photos
Field, laboratory, and organismal work from my doctoral research.
Zebrafish Neurobiology Research Photos
Fluorescence microscopy and laboratory work from my zebrafish neurobiology research.
research
Landscape genetics of an amphibian metapopulation
Combining landscape genetics and eDNA to test how stream networks, local habitat, and landscape context shape functional connectivity in Dryophytes wrightorum.
Host response to a body-snatching parasite
Using transcriptomics to test how invasion history shapes mud crab responses to infection by a parasitic barnacle.
Cis-regulatory neural adaptation during marine-freshwater divergence in stickleback
Investigating cis-regulatory evolution at single-cell resolution during repeated marine-freshwater divergence in threespine stickleback.
Gene-regulatory network evolution in plants
Studying evolutionary shifts in gene-regulatory network connectivity of orthologs across 100 species of plants
Diel transcriptomic dynamics in giant kelp
Exploring how gene expression changes across day–night cycles to illuminate the molecular rhythms underlying giant kelp physiology.
Invasive tunicate population genomics
Using population genomic data to reconstruct invasion history, connectivity, and adaptive variation in a globally invasive tunicate.
Thermal tolerance in an invasive tunicate
Exploring how geography, developmental plasticity, and population history shape responses to temperature.
Mermithid-sandhopper phylogeography
Cophylogeography of a sandhopper and its mermithid parasite across New Zealand’s South Island.
Mitonuclear introgression between Pacific stickleback species
Investigating how hybridization between Japan Sea and threespine sticklebacks reshapes interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.
Horsehair worm genetics
Assessing the genetic diversity of Nematomorpha in New Zealand.
RepAdapt
A large collaborative comparative population genomics project testing patterns of repeated adaptation across more than 250 species.
Surfgrass responses to marine heatwaves
Investigating how marine heatwaves reshape gene expression in surfgrass and influence resilience to acute ocean warming.
Parallel adaptation in threespine stickleback
Investigating the repeatability of adaptation across various axes of ecotypic divergence following post-glacial colonization.
Zebrafish neurobiology and Brainbow
Combining transgenesis and live fluorescence imaging to trace cell lineages in the developing vertebrate brain.
teaching
BIO 422 — Neurobiology
Acting Teaching Laboratory Assistant, Lewis & Clark College, Spring 2013–Spring 2015
ZOOL 318 — Freshwater Ecology
Demonstrator, University of Otago, Spring 2016
ZOOL 315 — Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology
Demonstrator, University of Otago, Fall 2016
7.47 — Biological Oceanography
Teaching Assistant, MIT–WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, Spring 2020
BIOL 242L — Genomes and Evolution Laboratory
Instructor of Record, University of San Diego, Spring 2025
See above :)
Pathways to Scientific Teaching
Pedagogical Training, University of California San Diego, Winter 2025
This postdoctoral seminar focused on inclusive, learner-centered, and evidence-based instruction in undergraduate STEM courses. Through active learning, collaborative design, peer review, and practice teaching, I developed a three-dimensional introductory biology lesson that aligned learning objectives, science-practice-based activities, and assessments. The course also addressed the creation of inclusive learning communities, student motivation, evaluation of student learning, and the use of assessment data to refine instruction.
BILD 3 — Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Instructor of Record, University of California San Diego, Summer Session II 2025
This accelerated five-week course introduces students to evolution and ecology while connecting processes at the level of genes and populations to the diversity and distribution of life. The course also considers how human activity affects climate, habitats, and extinction risk, and how evolutionary and ecological knowledge can inform conservation.
BIOL 242L — Genomes and Evolution Laboratory
Instructor of Record, University of San Diego, Spring 2026
This laboratory course for biology majors explores the origin and maintenance of biological variation, from individual genetic mutations in bacteria to adaptive radiations across geologic timescales. In addition to developing mastery of course content, students immerse themselves in the scientific method, learning basic microbiological techniques and how to apply them toward probing the nature of natural selection and evolution. Students work over the course of the semester on drafting a lab report to build their scientific writing skills.
BILD 1 — The Cell
Instructor of Record, University of California San Diego, Summer Session II 2026
This accelerated five-week course introduces the structure and function of cells in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Students examine the molecules found in cells, how cells obtain and use energy, how they respond to their environments, and how biological information is passed to the next generation.