René Malenfant

Academic interests

• Evolutionary biology
• Molecular ecology
• Mammalogy

Brief biography

René grew up Durham, Nova Scotia. He has a B.Sc. in Computing Science from St. Francis Xavier University, and a B.Sc. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Alberta. Between those degrees, he lived in Japan, where he taught English and worked as a translator. He completed his Ph.D. in Systematics and Evolution from the University of Alberta and started teaching at the University of New Brunswick in 2016.

In his free time, he reads non-fiction books and attempts to play musical instruments.

Courses taught

• BIOL 2103. Evolution
• BIOL 3933. Practical Computing for Biologists
• BIOL 4463. Scientific Writing
• BIOL 4523/6523. Phylogenetics
• BIOL Experimental Design and Data Analysis in Biology and Forestry

Selected research

Malenfant, R.M., Davis, C.S., Richardson, E.S., Lunn, N.J., and Coltman, D.W. 2018. Heritability of body size in the polar bears of Western Hudson Bay. Molecular Ecology Resources 18(4): 854–866.

Malenfant, R.M., Coltman, D.W., Richardson, E.S., Lunn, N.J., Stirling, I., Adamowicz, E., and Davis, C.S. 2016. Evidence of adoption, monozygotic twinning, and low inbreeding rates in a large genetic pedigree of polar bears. Polar Biology 39(8): 1455–1465.

Malenfant, R.M., Davis, C.S., Cullingham, C.I., and Coltman, D.W. 2016. Circumpolar genetic structure and recent gene flow of polar bears: a reanalysis. PLOS ONE 11(3): e0148967.

Malenfant, R.M., Coltman, D.W., and Davis, C.S. 2015. Design of a 9K Illumina BeadChip for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from transcriptomic and RAD sequencing. Molecular Ecology Resources 15(3): 587–600.