My research combines original theory with laboratory and field experiments to study the ecology and evolution of reproductive and life-history strategies in teleost fishes. Most of my current research focuses on conflicts of interest (e.g. "the battle of the sexes," intrasexual competition for mates, parent/offspring conflict), and their implications for the fish mating systems. My research program integrates several levels of biological organization and includes elements of population biology, sensory physiology, and genetics.

• Rush, VN, McKinnon, JS, Abney, MA & Sargent, RC. 2003. Reflectance spectra from free-swimming sticklebacks (Gasterosteus): Social context and eye-jaw contrast. Behaviour, 140:1003-1019.
• Rogers, BL & Sargent, RC. 2001. A Dynamic Model of Size-Dependent Reproductive Effort in a Sequential Hermaphrodite: A Counterexample to Williams's Conjecture. American Naturalist, 158:543-552.
• Crowley, PH, T Cottrell, T Garcia, M Hatch, RC Sargent, BJ Stokes, and JM White  1998. Solving the complementarity dilemma: Evolving strategies for simultaneous hermaphroditism.  Journal of Theoretical Biology, 195:13-26.
• Lindstrom, KB & Sargent, RC 1997. Food access, brood size and filial cannibalism in the fantail darter, Etheostoma flabellare. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 40:107-110.
• Crowley, PH & Sargent, RC 1996. Whence Tit-For-Tat? Evolutionary Ecology, 10:499-516.
• Sargent, RC, Crowley, PH, Huang, C, Lauer, MJ, Neergaard, DA & Schmoetzer, L 1995. A dynamic program for male parental care in fishes: brood cycling and filial cannibalism. Behaviour, 132:1059-1078.
• Sargent, RC 1992. Ecology of filial cannibalism in fishes: theoretical perspectives, in Cannibalism: Ecology and Evolution Among Diverse Taxa, pp. 38-62, MA Elgar & BJ Crespi (eds), Oxford University Press.