Jacob (Jake) Berv is an evolutionary biologist interested in building and deciphering the tree of life. His research integrates data from natural history, ecology, genomics, and paleontology—often through the application of novel computational tools—in order to understand the links between micro- and macroevolution.
Recent News
January 15, 2026 — Publication: Morphological Responses to Climate Change
Jacob Berv co-authored “Exploring the data demands and global opportunities for reconstructing morphological responses to climate change” in Evolutionary Ecology (2026). DOI
January 13, 2026 — Service: Peer Review Milestone (66 Verified Reviews)
Jacob Berv reached a professional service milestone of 66 verified peer reviews across journals including Systematic Biology, Evolution, PNAS, and Nature.
November 15, 2025 — Guest Lecture on Molecular Systematics for EARTH 444
Jacob Berv gave a guest lecture on Molecular Systematics for University of Michigan EARTH 444 (Analytical Paleobiology) in November 2025.
October 15, 2025 — Award: GSA Pardee Keynote Speaker Travel Award
Jacob Berv received the Geological Society of America Pardee Keynote Speaker Travel Award ($2,000) in connection with the 2025 invited Pardee keynote. Session page
October 15, 2025 — Completed Banbury Scientific Entrepreneurship Workshop
Jacob Berv completed the “AI in Science Entrepreneurship” workshop at the Cold Spring Harbor Banbury Center in October 2025 with Schmidt Sciences travel support. Banbury Center
The banner shows a portion of Salvador Dalí’s Persistence of Memory. Art historian Dawn Adès described the melting clocks as “an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time.” In evolutionary biology, time is also relative — and, outside paleontology, rarely absolute. Dalí’s pruned olive tree, overtaken by time, echoes the challenge of reconstructing the tree of life. In the upper left is a nod to Charles Darwin’s note, “I think,” from his famous sketch of a phylogenetic tree.