I’m a sixth year PhD student with broad interests ranging from population diversification and adaptation to ecoimmunology and conservation. My graduate work examines how various aspects of a bat’s ecology affect its exposure to parasitism and disease and how this in turn shapes its immunogenetic evolution. Additionally I am working as part of an interdisciplinary team of ecologists and medical doctors to explore how infectious organisms are shared across a countryside landscape in Costa Rica. By combining field work and genetic techniques, I hope to learn more about the evolution of bats, ecologically important species which also serve as important vectors and reservoirs of emerging diseases. Before graduate school my research included projects investigating macroevolutionary patterns of convergence and phylogenetic signal in the toepads of Anolis lizards and the effect of resource availability and other environmental factors on white blood cells and immune function in tuatara, a threatened, endemic, New Zealand reptile.

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I am a sixth year PhD candidate studying pikas (small mammals related to rabbits - the inspiration for Pikachu). My work is aimed at identifying the genetic mechanisms that underlie Himalayan pikas’ ability to survive in severely hypoxic conditions. Himalayan pikas may be forced to shift their ranges due to climate change but some of these species may not have the genetic adaptions necessary to survive the hypoxia of their new higher elevation habitat. In an effort to get a full image of the suite of adaptations that enable the hypoxia tolerance seen in some pika species, I am assessing adaptations in mitochondrial candidate genes, considering the role of plasticity in gene expression using transcriptomics, as well as identifying new candidate genes through next-generation techniques.

I'm a fifth year PhD student interested in the origin and conservation of mammalian diversity, with an emphasis on small mammals and human-animal interactions. I take an interdisciplinary approach using techniques from paleontology, phylogenetics, ecology, and genomics to address basic questions about extinction as well as to provide appropriate historical baselines for conservation efforts. Current projects include understanding selective extinction dynamics of Caribbean mammals, fecal metabarcoding to elucidate solenodon diet, eulipotyphlan (insectivorous mammal) evolution, and reconstruction of human populations across South America. I am also committed to disseminating this scientific knowledge through paleontological outreach in the Dominican Republic and through teaching interdisciplinary undergraduate courses.

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I’m a second year doctoral student interested in environmental toxicants, adaptations, epigenetics/epigenomics and evolutionary genomics. My research is aimed at understanding the impact of environmental toxicants on mammal fauna through the lens of genomics/epigenomics. Currently, I am focused on the effects that mercury released from small scale gold mining have on bat fauna and the terrestrial ecosystem structure and function as a whole. Prior to joining the Hadly lab at Stanford, I was working on my master’s degree with Dr. Liliana Cortés-Ortiz at the University of Michigan. For my thesis, I studied the diversity and evolutionary history of Peruvian red howler monkeys.

I am a second year PhD student in the Microbiology and Immunology Department, and am being co-advised in the Kirkegaard Lab. My interests involve understanding how ecological characteristics contribute to host immune responses. In particular, many recently emerged viral diseases including Nipah, Marburg, SARS, and Ebola are hypothesized to have their origins in bats. My thesis research focuses on using bat ecology to investigate unique innate immune mechanisms employed to limit viral infection, and allow them to be a reservoir of highly pathogenic viral diseases in humans. Outside of lab, I am extremely passionate about outreach and empowering others through education.

I am a first year PhD student in the Hadly and Petrov labs interested in studying the patterns of speciation and diversity at the genomic level. Specifically, I am interested in using genomic methods to understand how species adapt and diverge because of ecological pressures. Previously, I have worked on genome evolution in Hawaiian picture-wing Drosophila, population genetics in Ariamnes spiders, and worked on several genome assembly projects.

I am a first year PhD student in the Goldbogen lab at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. I am interested in studying foraging ecology and biomechanics of rorqual species using bio-logging techniques. I am also interested in the effects of oxygen storage on diving capabilities.

I am a master’s student in the Earth System’s Department studying the intersection of biology and design. I started doing research in the Hadly Lab as a biology undergraduate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (BS). My first forays into research here were on the morphology of the extinct family Nesophontidae, a project that is still ongoing. I also focused on science communication, traveling to the Dominican Republic to understand local perspectives on the endangered solenodon. You can listen to the resulting podcast here. My current research focuses on morphology and ecology of the understudied order of insectivorous mammals Eulipotyphla, comprised of hedgehogs, moles, shrews, solenodons and nesophontids. With this model system I seek to investigate questions relating to dietary evolution in a speciose yet seemingly constrained group of organisms.

I am interested in understanding the ecological effects of animal communities on ecosystem function and ecological responses of animal communities to environmental change. Current projects focus on characterizing ecological responses through the application of stable isotope analysis to specimen collections held by natural history museums. My research aims to link temporal patterns in the isotopic composition of small mammal tissues (Blarina brevicauda, Microtus pennsylvanicus, and Microtus californicus) to temporal patterns of regional land use, nitrogen deposition, and climate over the past 150 years.

I’m interested in using genetic data to inform species and habitat conservation in the context of environmental changes. During my Postdoc, funded by the Swiss National Fund, I aim to assess the reliability of eDNA-based species detection for faunal diversity surveys. My past and continuing work has been to assess the adaptations of various species to local environmental conditions.

I am interested in population genetics and its application in conservation. One of my research interests is to understand how eco-hydrological dynamics affect gene flow in a population of the semi-aquatic muskrat. In addition, I am also interested in the phylogeography of muskrats in North America. I am also involved with another project on the conservation genomics of tigers. Poaching of tigers for traffic in the illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest threats to their conservation. I am interested in tracking the source populations of the tiger parts traded within the USA: in particular, determining the role of the 6000-plus captive tiger population in supplying the domestic wildlife trade.