
Research
Riley's research aims to understand how habitat fragmentation and climate change influence plant conservation through effects on the ecology and evolution of populations. His research highlights how climate change is affecting stress-adapted plant populations on Georgia's isolated granitic outcrops.
2021 Research Teaching and Outreach award, UGA Plant Biology Graduate Association, "Disentangling the roles of demographic and genetic processes towards the persistence of plant populations in a changing climate"
2017 Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Award, Sigma Xi Gustavus Adolphus College, "Investigating compensatory photosynthesis in response to simulated herbivory"
Selected Publications
Hanson, D, RD Thoen, J Beck, SW Nordstrom, KE Muller, & S Wagenius. 2020. EchinaceaLab. R package. https://github.com/stuartWagenius/echinaceaLab
Kiefer, G, RD Thoen, & S Wagenius. 2020. exPt 1 Core. The Echinacea Project. Dataset. http://echinaceaproject.org/datasets/expt1-core/
Education
2020 Admission to the PhD program in Plant Bioloigy at the University of Georgia.
2019 B.A. Honors Biology, Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN.