Carl Hjelmen

Faculty Member

Dr. Carl Hjelmen

Biography

I joined the Department of Biology at UVU in 2021. While originally from a small town in South Dakota, I spent 8 years in Texas at Texas A&M University completing my PhD and two postdoctoral research positions. In my first postdoctoral position with Dr. Aaron Tarone, I investigated miRNA and protein makers of immature development in forensically relevant flies. In my second postdoctoral position with Dr. Heath Blackmon, I continued to investigate genome size evolution in insects, as well as whole genome sequencing of a variety of insect species. I received my PhD in Entomology in 2017 at Texas A&M University with J. Spencer Johnston investigating genome size evolution in Drosophila species utilizing comparative phylogenetic methods.

For more information, check out my website at https://cehjelmen.github.io

Education

PhD, Texas A&M University, 2017

Major: Entomology

BA, Augustana College, 2013

Major: Biology

Teaching

BIOL 4600

Bioinformatics Capstone, Spring 2025

BIOL 1011

Introduction to Bioinformatics, Spring 2025

BIOL 1011

Introduction to Bioinformatics, Spring 2025

BIOL 4500

Principles of Evolution, Spring 2025

BIOL 4500

Principles of Evolution, Spring 2025

BIOL 490R

Special Topics in Biology, Spring 2025

Presentations

Beck, Haylee (Presenter & Author), Weidner, Lauren M (Co-Author), Hjelmen, Carl (Author Only), Pacific Branch of Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Blow fly biodiversity and ecological roles in Utah's diverse landscapes", Salt Lake City, UT. (March 31, 2025)
Frary, Olivia (Presenter & Author), Jetton, Barbara (Co-Author), Hjelmen, Carl (Author Only), Pacific Branch of Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Genome size evolution in Hymenoptera_ Phylogenetic insights into social structure and genomic diversity", Salt Lake City, UT. (March 31, 2025)
Jannuzzi, Bailey (Presenter & Author), Meeds, Andrew (Co-Author), Weidner, Lauren M. (Co-Author), Hjelmen, Carl (Author Only), Pacific Branch of Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Oxford nanopore technology sequencing and identification of fl y gut content", Salt Lake City, UT. (March 31, 2025)
Jetton, Barbara (Presenter & Author), Hjelmen, Carl (Author Only), Pacific Branch of Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Unpacking chromosomal evolution in Diptera_ Insights from phylogenetic reconstruction and comparative analyses", Salt Lake City, UT. (March 31, 2025)
Hjelmen, Carl , Utah Drosophila Fall Symposium, "Evolution of genome size and structures in the Drosophila genus", University of Utah. (November 18, 2024)
Hjelmen, Carl , Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Bugs in the system_ A computational biologist's first semester teaching entomology", Phoenix, AZ. (November 12, 2024)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Zahn, Geoffrey , Hjelmen, Carl , (2025) "Phylogeny files for Palm Oil Recovery analyses [Dataset]. " (vol. (Version 1.0.0)). Zenodo.. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14708616
Copeland, Megan , Landa, Shelby , Owoyemi, Adekola Oluwatosin, Jonika, Michelle M, Alfieri, James M, Johnston, J. Spencer, Sylvester, Terrence Pradakshana, Kyre, Bethany R, Hoover, Zachary , Hjelmen, Carl , Rieski, Lynne K, Blackmon, Heath , Casola, Claudio , (2024) "Genome assembly of the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmerman) reveals the origins of gene content reduction in Dendroctonus" (vol. 11). Royal Society Open Science. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240755
Hjelmen, Carl , (2024) "Genome size and chromosome number are critical metrics for accurate genome assembly assessment in Eukaryota" (Issue: 4, vol. 227). Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyae099
Hjelmen, Carl , (2024) "cehjelmen/gs_assessment: publish-public [dataset]" (vol. (Version 1.0.0)). Zenodo.. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11506495
Sylvester, Terrence , Hoover, Zachary , Hjelmen, Carl , Jonika, Michelle M, Blackmon, Leslie T, Alfieri, James M, Johnston, J Spencer, Chien, Sean , Esfandani, Tahmineh , Blackmon, Heath , (2024) "A reference quality genome assembly for the Jewel scarab Chrysina gloriosa " . G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae084
Hjelmen, Carl , Yuan, Ye , Parrott, Jonathan J, McGuane, Alexander S, Srivastav, Satyam P, Purcell, Amanda C, Pimsler, Meaghan L, Sze, Sing-Hoi , Tarone, Aaron M, (2022) "Identification and Characterization of Small RNA Markers of Age in the Blow Fly Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius)(Diptera: Calliphoridae) " (vol. 13). Insects.

Awards

College of Science Dean's Distinguished Faculty - Scholarship Award

UVU College of Science - April 10, 2025