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Professor Cooper is interested in the evolution and ecology of phenotypic variation, particularly the selection pressures that lead to variation between sexes and between species. To study this, she investigates color and behavior of species in two damselfly genera, Megalagrion (an endemic Hawaiian radiation) and Calopteryx (Jewelwing damselflies of the mainland US and Canada).

Alongside studying the evolution of color and form in nature, Cooper also explores such variation through visual art, including painting and printmaking. She considers how the fields of visual arts and sciences have the potential to complement and enrich discoveries in each other.

Courses Taught

BIO 150 - Biological Inquiry
BIO 373 - Mechanisms of Evolution

Publications

Suárez-Tovar, C. M., Guillermo-Ferreira, R., Cooper, I. A., Cezário, R. R., & Córdoba-Aguilar, A. (2022). Dragon colors: the nature and function of Odonata (dragonfly and damselfly) coloration. Journal of Zoology, 317: 1– 9.

Hembry DH, Bennett G, Bess E, Cooper IA, Jordan S, Liebherr J, Magnacca K, Polhemus D, Daniel Rubinoff D, Shaw K, and O’Grady PM. (2021) Insect Radiations on Islands: Biogeographic Pattern and Evolutionary Process in Hawaiian Insects. The Quarterly Review of Biology 96(4): 247-296.

Cook P, Rasmussen R, Brown JM, and Cooper IA. (2018). Sexual conflict does not maintain female color polymorphism in a territorial damselfly. Animal Behaviour 140:171-176.

Cooper IA, Brown JM, and Getty T. (2016). A role for ecology in the evolution of colour variation and sexual dimorphism in Hawaiian damselflies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 29(2):418-27.

Cooper IA, Gilman RT, and Boughman JW. 2011. Sexual dimorphism and speciation on two ecological coins: patterns from nature and theoretical predictions. Evolution 65(9):2553-2571.

Cooper IA. 2010. Ecology of sexual dimorphism and clinal variation of coloration in a damselfly. American Naturalist 176:566–572.