Ira Cooke is an associate professor in bioinformatics and co-director of the Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology at James Cook University. His research uses population genomics to understand adaptation in the marine environment by connecting historical events and biogeographical patterns with evolutionary processes. This work often highlights specific genes and genomic regions, leading to an improvement in our understanding of the basic molecular biology of marine taxa (ie what genes do and how they are regulated).  To further this goal Ira often works collaboratively, providing bioinformatic expertise to projects combining evo-devo, physiological and comparative genomic approaches.