EDUCATION
Ph.D. 1997 Duke University,  Botany/ Genetics.
M.Sc. 1986 Stanford University, Biology.
B.A. 1984 Lewis and Clark College, Biology/ English.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• 2000- present Plant Geneticist, USDA/ARS National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation. 
• 1997-2000 Post Doctoral Research Associate, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
• 1993-1997 Research Associate, Duke University (Metapopulation Dynamics NSF grant)
• 1990-1993 Teaching Assistant, Duke University (Molecular Evolution Lan, Evolution, Introductory Biology)
• 1986-1990 Research Biologist II, Department of Plant Molecular Biology,
  Sandoz Corporation/ Zoëcon Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA   
   

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION AND INTEREST

• Conservation genetics
• Interface between population genetics and phylogenetics
• Theory and practice of population sampling for ex situ conservation
• Genetic dynamics in conservation collections
• Theoretical inference of genetic structure and adaptation
• Data standards for molecular and geographic information in databases 

PUBLICATIONS

Richards, C.M., Volk, G.M., Reeves, P.A., Reilley, A., Henk, A. D. Selection of stratified core sets representing wild apple (Malus sieversii). (In Review, Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science).

Reeves, P.A., Richards, C.M.  Species delimitation within native North American Humulus lupulus (Cannabaceae). (In Review, Systematic Biology)

Reeves, P.A,. Richards, C.M. Accurate Inference of Subtle Population Structure (and Other Genetic Discontinuities) Using Principal Coordinates. (In Review, PloS ONE).

Volk, G.M., Richards, C.M., Henk, A.D., Reilley, A., Miller, D.D., Forsline, P.L. Comparison of Malus sieversii populations in Kyrgyzstan to those in Kazakhstan. (In Press, HortScience).

Kothera, L., Zimmerman, E.M., Richards, C.M., Savage, H. M. 2008. Microsatellite characterization of subspecies and their hybrids in Culex pipiens complex mosquitoes along a north-south transect in the central United States of America. (In Press, Journal of Medical Entomology)

Richards, C.M., Volk, G.M., Reilley, A.A., Henk, A.D., Reeves, P.A., Lockwood, D.R. and Forsline, P.L. 2008. Genetic diversity and population structure in Malus sieversii, a wild progenitor species of domesticated apple. (In Press, Tree Genetics and Genomes).

Walters, C., Volk, G. A. and Richards C. M. 2008. Genebanks in the post-genomic age: emerging roles and anticipated uses.  Biodiversity Issues  9: 68-71.

Volk, G. M., Richards, C. M., 2008. Availability of genotypic data for USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System accessions using the Genetic Resources Information Network (GRIN) database. HortScience 43: 1365-1366.

Volk, G. M., Richards, C. M., Reilley, A.A., Henk, A.D., Reeves, P.A., Forsline, P.L. and Aldwinckle, H. S. 2008. Genetic diversity and disease resistance of wild Malus orientalis from Turkey and Southern Russia. Journal of the American Society of Horticultural Science 133: 1-8.

MacNeil, M.D., Cronin, M.A., Blackburn, H. D., Richards, C. M., Lockwood, D. R., Kantanen, J., and Alexander, L. J.  2007. Genetic relationships between feral cattle from Chirikof Island, Alaska and other breeds.  Animal Genetics 38: 193-197.

Kothera, L. Richards, C. M. and Carney, S.E. 2007. Genetic diversity and structure in the rare Colorado endemic plant Physaria bellii Mulligan (Brassicaceae). Conservation Genetics 8:1043-1050.

Reeves, P. A, He, Y., Schmitz, R.J., Amasino, R. M., Panella, L.W. and Richards, C. M. 2007. Evolutionary conservation of the FLC-mediated vernalization response: evidence for the sugar beet (Beta vulgaris). Genetics 176:295-307.

Lockwood, D. R., Richards, C. M. and Volk, G. M. 2007. Probabilistic models for collecting genetic diversity: comparisons, caveats and limitations. Crop Science 47: 859-866. 2007. (Outstanding paper award CSSA 2007)

Reeves, P. and Richards, C. M. 2007. Distinguishing terminal monophyletic groups from reticulate taxa: Performance of phenetic, tree-based and network procedures Systematic Botany 56: 302-320. 2007

Richards, C. M., Reilley, A., Antolin, M. and Walters, C. 2007. Capturing genetic diversity of wild populations for ex situ conservation: endangered wildrice as a model. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 54: 837-848.

Lockwood, D. R., Richards, C. M. and Volk, G. M.  2007. Wild plant sampling strategies:  the roles of ecology and evolution Plant Breeding Reviews 29: 285-313.

Walters, C., Reilley, A. Baszczak, J. and Richards, C.M. 2006. The utility of aged seeds in DNA banks. Seed Science Research 16: 169-178.

Volk, G. M., Richards, C. M., Henk, A. D., Reilley, A. A., Bassil, N. V. and Postman, J. D.  2006. Diversity of wild Pyrus communis based on microsatellite analyses.  J. American. Society for Horticultural Science 131: 408-417.

Barthelmess, E., Richards, C.M. and McCauley, D. 2006. Relative effects of nocturnal and diurnal pollinators and distance on gene flow in small Silene alba populations. New Phytologist 169: 689-698.

Falk, D., Richards, C. M., Montalvo, A. and Knapp, E.  2006. Population and ecological genetics in restoration. In: Foundations of Restoration Biology, D. Falk, M. Palmer and J. Zedler Eds. Island Press, Washington, D.C. (Invited review).

Reeves, P. Friedman and Richards, C. M. 2005. wolfPAC : Building a high-performance network for phylogenetic analysis using ‘obselete’ computational resources. Applied Bioinformatics 4:61-64.

Volk, G., Richards, C. M., Reilley, A., Henk, A., Aldwinckle, H. and Forsline, P. 2005. Ex situ conservation of vegetatively-propagated species: development of a seed-based core collection for Malus sieversii. American Society for Horticultural Science 130:202-210.

Richards, C. M.  2004. Molecular technologies for the management and use of gene bank collections. In: Issues in The Evolving Role of Genebanks in the Fast Developing Field of Molecular Genetics, de Vincente, M.C. (Ed.) IPGRI, Rome, Italy.(Invited review).

Richards C.M., A Reilley, D Touchell, M.F. Antolin and Walters, C.2004. Microsatellite primers for Texas wild rice (Zizania texana), and a preliminary test of the impact of cryogenic storage on allele frequency at these loci. Conservation Genetics 5:853-859.

Richards, C.M., M. Brownson, S. Mitchell, S. Kresovich and Panella, L. 2004. Length polymorphisms of simple sequence repeats in Beta vulgaris. Molecular Ecology Notes 4:243-245.

Volk, G., Henk, A. and Richards, C.M. 2004. Genetic diversity among US garlic clones as detected using AFLP methods. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 129:559-569.

Volk, G.M., Henk, A. and Richards, C. M. 2004. How many garlics are there? The Garlic Press 44:5-8.

Richards, C. M., McCauley, D. E. and Emery, S.N. 2003. Genetic and demographic dynamics in colonizing populations of Silene alba. Heredity 90:181-186.

McCauley, D. E., Richards, C. M., Emery, S.E, Smith, R.A. and. McGlothlin, J. W. 2001. The interaction of genetic and demographic processes in plant metapopulations: a case study of Silene alba. In: Integrating Ecology and Evolution in a Spatial Context. Silvertown, J. and Antonovics, J., (Eds.) Blackwell Science, Oxford.. (Invited paper).

Richards, C. M.  2000. Inbreeding depression and genetic rescue in a plant metapopulation. American Naturalist 155: 383-394.

Richards, C. M.  2000. Gene flow and genetic rescue in a plant metapopulation.  In: Genetics and Demography of Fragmented Populations.  A. Young and G. Clarke (Eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (Invited paper)

Richards, C. M., Church, S. and McCauley, D.  1999. The influence of population size and isolation on gene flow by pollen in Silene alba.  Evolution 53: 60-71.

Richards, C. M.  1997 The ecological genetics of population establishment in Silene alba. Ph.D. Thesis Dissertation, Duke University.

Thrall, P., Richards, C. M., McCauley, D. and Antonovics, J. 1997. Metapopulation collapse: the consequences of limited gene flow in spatially structured populations.  In: Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Ecology.  J. Bascompte and M. Solé (Eds.) Academic Press, New York. (Invited paper)
 
Trail, F., Richards, C. M. and Wu, F–S. 1989. Genetic manipulation in Brassica.  In: Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry.  Y. B. S. Bajaj  (Ed) Vol. 9, pp 197-216. Springer–Verlag, Berlin.