Patrick Phillips is an academic expert in ecology and evolution, the biology of aging, molecular biology, and the genetics of complex traits. He is provost, senior vice president, a professor of biology, a member of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, a member of the NIH Center for excellence in systems biology, and Microbial Ecology and Theory of Animals Center for Systems Biology (META). 

A nationally recognized expert in ecology and evolution, Phillips’ research focuses on the biology of aging, genomics, and the genetics of complex traits. He has helped to pioneer our understanding of how complex genetic interactions shape the way that organisms develop, behave, and evolve. He is now applying these approaches toward discovering how to increase people's health spans and decrease the impacts of environmental stress over the lifetime of an individual.