CAREER RECORD & QUALIFICATION

Aug 2009 - present

Assistant Professor at Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.

Feb 2006 - June 2009
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Saint Louis University, USA (with Prof. Richard Mayden).

Oct 2003 - Dec 2005
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at INRA, Bordeaux, France (with Dr. Marie-France Corio-Costet).

Nov 2002 - May 2003
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Konstanz, Germany (with Prof. Axel Meyer).

Feb 2001 - Oct 2002
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Nebraska, USA (with Dr. Guillermo Ortí).

Feb 2002 & Feb 2006

Qualified as “maîtres de conférences” (assistant professor) in section 68 “Biologie des organismes” in France.

EDUCATION

2001. Ph.D. Biological Sciences- Biodiversity: Genetics, History and Mechanisms of Evolution at University of Paris 6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), France.

1997. DEA (equivalent to master degree in USA system):Biodiversity: Genetics, History and Mechanisms of Evolution at University of Paris 6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), France.

1993. Bachelor of Science at Department of Zoology, Fishery Division, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

SPECIFIC WORK

• Biogeography [in progress].
• Mitochondrial genomics of mollusks [in progress] and ray-finned fishes [17]. 
• Cypriniformes tree of Life (CToL) project [2, 4, 9-11; 13-18].
• High-level phylogeny of ray-finned fishes other than cypriniforms [20, 22, 25].
• Molecular systematics of the Percomorpha with focus on 

- Lethrinidae [7, 8, in progress].

- Gerreidae [20].
- Antarctic notothenioids [26, 27].
- Mugilidae [1, in progress].
- Sciaenidae [in progress].

• Fish phylogenomics [5-6,22].
• Development of nuclear gene markers for studying phylogenetics, systematics, and evolution of ray-finned fishes [13, 24-25] (see also this page).
• Mechanisms of evolution of fungicide resistance in populations of grapevine downy mildew [3, 12, 19,21].

PAST RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS

During my doctorate study (at Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie générale et appliquée and Service commun de systématique moléculaire, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) à Paris under the supervision of Dr. Guillaume Lecointre), my research was focused on a systematics project of acanthomorph fishes, the most diverse group of vertebrates. My work was the first attempt to summarize multi-locus data for an extensive taxonomic sampling of acanthomorphs [25]. I also worked on small-scale phylogeny of higher notothenioids (Antarctic acanthomorphs, composed of the families Harpagiferidae, Artedidraconidae, Bathydraconidae, and Channichthyidae) based on two mitochondrial genes [26-27]. The comparison with phylogeography and ecology of included channichthyid taxa allowed proposing putative speciation models and correlations with paleo-events of Antarctic Ocean [27].

I embarked on my first postdoctoral training at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to further horn my skills on molecular techniques and molecular systematics of fishes [24]. Later, I had a short stint as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Konstanz in Germany where I worked on projects of EVODEVO (evolutionary development) in cichlids and phylogenomic analysis of fish model systems [22]. Besides, a collaboration work (with Dr. Jing Luo) on molecular systematics and biogeography of Oriental Voles (Genus Eothenomys, Muridae, Mammalia) was accomplished [23].

I also expand my extensive experience in Molecular Systematics studies to the investigations of micro-evolution and Molecular Ecology using grapevine downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) as model system [3,12,19,21]. This research activity was conducted at French National Institute for Agronomic research (INRA, Bordeaux).

Prior to my current position, I have been working on the US NSF funded AToL study on the Cypriniformes Tree of Life (CToL) at St. Louis University [2, 4-5, 9-11; 13-18].

PUBLICATIONS

 2012 

1.  DURAND, J.-D., SEN, K.-N., CHEN, W.-J., JAMANDRE, B.-W., BLEL, H. DIOP, K., NIRCHIO, M., GARCIA DE LEÓN, J.F., WHITFIELD, A.K., CHANG, C.-W. & BORSA, P. (2012) Systematics of the grey mullets (Teleostei: Mugiliformes: Mugilidae): molecular phylogenetic evidence challenges two centuries of morphology-based taxonomic studies. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (In press) (link).

 2011 

2. TANG, K. L., AGNEW, M. K., CHEN, W.-J., RALEY, M. E., SADO, T., SCHNEIDER, L. M., YANG, L., BART, H. L., HE, S., LIU, H., MIYA, M., SAITOH, K., SIMONS, A. M., WOOD, R. M. & MAYDEN, R. L. (2011) Phylogeny of the gudgeons (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Gobioninae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 61:103-124 (link).

3. CORIO-COSTET, M-F., DUFOUR, M-C., CIGNA, J., ABADIE, P. & CHEN, W-J. (2011) Diversity and fitness of Plasmopara viticola isolates resistant to QoI fungicides. European Journal of Plant Pathology 129:315-329 (link). 

 2010 

4. MAYDEN, R. L. & CHEN, W-J. (2010) The world's smallest vertebrate species of the Genus Paedocypris: A new family of freshwater fishes and the sister group to the world's most diverse clade of freshwater fishes (Teleostei: Cypriniformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57:152-175 (Link).

5. SAITOH, K., CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2010) Extensive hybridization and tetrapolyploidy in spined loach fish. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56(3): 1001-1010 (Link). 

6. CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2010) A phylogenomic perspective on the new era of ichthyology. BioScience 60(6): 421-432 [view PDF].

8. BORSA, P., BEAREZ, P., & CHEN, W-J. (2010) Gymnocranius oblongus, a new large-eye bream species from New Caledonia (Teleostei: Lethrinidae). Comptes Rendus Biologies 333: 241-247 (Link).

 2009 

9. CHEN, W-J., LHEKNIM, V. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2009) Molecular phylogeny of the Cobitoidea (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) revisited: Position of enigmatic loach Ellopostoma Vaillant resolved with six nuclear genes. Journal of Fish Biology 75(9): 2197-2208 (Link) [view PDF].

10. CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2009) Molecular systematics of the Cyprinoidea (Teleostei: Cypriniformes), the world's largest clade of freshwater fishes: further evidence from six nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52(2): 544-549 (Link) [view PDF].

11. MAYDEN, R.L., CHEN, W-J., BART, H.L., DOOSEY, M.H., SIMONS, A.M., et al. (2009) Reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of the Earth's most diverse clade of freshwater fishes - order Cypriniformes (Actinopterygii: Ostariophysi): a case study using multiple nuclear loci and the mitochondrial genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 51(3): 500-514 (Link) [view PDF] (download supp. material).

 2008 

12. CORIO-COSTET, M-F., MARTINEZ, F., DELMOTTE, F.,  DOUENCE, L., RICHART-CERVERA, S. & CHEN, W-J. (2008) Resistance of Plasmopara viticola to QoIs fungicides: Origin and Diversity. In: Modern fungicides and antifungal compounds V. Dehne, H.W., Deising, H.B., Gisi, U., Kuck, K.H., Russell, P.E. & Lyr, H. (eds). DPG, Braunschweig, Germany, pp. 107-112 .

13. CHEN, W-J., MIYA, M., SAITOH, K. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2008) Phylogenetic utility of two existing and four novel nuclear gene loci in reconstructing Tree of Life of ray-finned fishes: The order Cypriniformes (Ostariophysi) as a case study. Gene 423(2): 125-134 (Link) [view PDF] (download supp. data).

14. SAITOH, K. & CHEN, W-J. (2008) Reducing cloning artifacts for recovery of allelic sequences by T7 endonuclease I cleavage and single re-extension of PCR products - A benchmark. Gene 423(1): 92-95 (Link) [view PDF].

15. MAYDEN, R.L., TANG, K.L., WOOD, R.M., CHEN, W-J., et al. (2008) Inferring the Tree of Life of the order Cypriniformes, the earth’s most diverse clade of freshwater fishes: implications of varied taxon and character sampling. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 46(3): 424–438 (Link) [view PDF].

16. CONWAY, K. W., CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R. L. (2008) The 'Celestial Pearl danio' is a miniature Danio (s.s) (Ostariophysi: Cyprinidae): evidence from morphology and molecules. Zootaxa 1686: 1-28 [view PDF] (media).

17. HE, S., GU, X., MAYDEN, R. L., CHEN, W-J., CONWAY, K. W. & CHEN, Y. (2008) Phylogenetic position of the enigmatic genus Psilorhynchus (Ostariophysi: Cypriniformes): evidence from the mitochondrial genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47(1): 419-425 (Link) [view PDF].

18. HE, S., MAYDEN, R. L., WANG, X., WANG, W., TANG, K. L., CHEN, W-J. & CHEN, Y. (2008) Molecular phylogenetics of the family Cyprinidae (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes) as evidenced by sequence variation in the first intron of S7 ribosomal protein-coding gene: further evidence from a nuclear gene of the systematic chaos in the family. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46(3): 818-829 (Link) [view PDF].

 2007 

19. CHEN, W-J., DELMOTTE, F., RICHARD-CERVERA, S., DOUENCE, L., GREIF, C. & CORIO-COSTET, M-F. (2007) At least two origins of fungicide resistance in grapevine downy mildew populations. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73: 5162-5172 (Link) [view PDF].

20. CHEN, W-J., RUIZ-CARUS, R. & ORTÍ, G. (2007) Relationships among four genera of mojarras (Teleostei: Perciformes: Gerreidae) from the western Atlantic and their tentative placement among percomorph fishes. Journal of Fish Biology 70 (supplement B): 202-218 (Link) [view PDF].

 2006 

21. DELMOTTE, F., CHEN, W-J., RICHARD-CERVERA, S., GREIF, C. PAPURA, D., GIRESSE, X., MONDOR-GENSON, G. & CORIO-COSTET, M-F. (2006) Microsatellite DNA markers for Plasmopara viticola, the causal agent of downy mildew of grapes. Molecular Ecology Notes 6(2):379-381 (Link) [view PDF].

 Before 2005 

22. CHEN, W-J., ORTÍ, G. & MEYER, A. (2004) Novel evolutionary relationships among four fish model systems. Trends in Genetics 20(9): 424-431 (Link) [view PDF].

23. LUO, J., YANG, D., SUZUKI, H., WANG, Y., CHEN, W-J., CAMPBELL, K. L. & ZHANG, Y. (2004) Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of Oriental Voles: Genus Eothenomys (Muridae, Mammalia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33(2): 349-362 (Link) [view PDF].

24. LÓPEZ, J. A., CHEN, W-J. & ORTÍ, G. (2004) Esociform phylogeny. Copeia 2004(3): 449-464 (Link) [view PDF].

25. CHEN, W-J., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (2003) Repeatability of clades as a criterion of reliability: a case study for molecular phylogeny of acanthomorph (teleostei) with larger number of taxa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 26(2): 262-288 (Link) [view PDF].

26. DEROME, N., CHEN, W-J., DETTAÏ, A., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (2002) Phylogeny of antarctic dragon fishes (bathydraconidae, notothenioidei, teleostei) and related families based on their anatomy and two mitochondrial genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution24(1): 139-152 (Link) [view PDF].

27. CHEN, W-J., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (1998) Phylogeny of the Channichthyidae (Notothenioidei, Teleostei) based on two mitochondrial genes. In: di Prisco, G., Pisano, E. and Clarke, A. (eds.). Fishes of Antarctica. A biological Overview. Springer Verlag. pp. 287-298 [view PDF].

N.B. Reprints (PDF) of my published papers are provided as exchange of information for personal use only. All copyrights remain with the original publishers of the articles.

REPORT & THESIS

EXPERIENCE IN MANUSCRIPT & GRANT REFEREE for