I am a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History. I have a diversity of interests, but a major theme of my research is to better understand how the physics of flowing water and geoclimatic processes have influenced the diversification of freshwater organisms, specifically freshwater mussels (order Unionida). Natural history collections and museum specimens form the nucleus of my research program which I leverage through genomics, imaging technologies, supercomputing resources, and field expeditions. Although mussels have been my recent focus, my background in Fisheries Biology makes me eager to collaborate on projects involving freshwater fishes and other stream macroinvertebrates. I also strive to make science more inclusive by advocating for underrepresented groups and engaging in community science projects.
Freshwater mussels are an impressively diverse radiation of bivalves, but phylogenetic hypotheses based on incomplete sampling limit applied evolutionary research of this fascinating group. A major objective of my research is to improve the freshwater mussel tree of life by more completely resolving phylogenetic relationships and providing taxonomic revisions where appropriate.
Sequencing technologies and tools used for phylogenetic inference have become astonishingly powerful. I am interested in using, and have experience with, genomic sequencing techniques like genome skimming (low-coverage whole genome sequencing), RAD-seq, and target capture to generate datasets that are capable of robustly testing phylogenetic and phylogeographic hypotheses.
Understanding why species exhibit traits is an important aspect of biodiversity research. I conduct experiments using natural and artificial conditions to uncover the function of traits.
Freshwater is a globally imperiled resource, so it comes as no surprise that the faunal groups that are reliant on freshwater habitats are among the most threatened and endangered. My goal is to use the insights gained from my ecological and evolutionary research to practically implement conservation actions for mussels, fishes, and other obligately freshwater lineages.
